The Geek, The Nerd, and The Loudmouth
by My-Name-Is-It
Summary: Kassie Duncan is adopted 8 years after her father disappeared and her mother tossed her into the orphanage. She moves in with Ms. Kingsley and her son Kevin in a small cul-de-sac in Peach Creek. She is a shy and teenage girl living in darkness and fear, but 3 oddball boys by the names Ed Edd and Eddy manage to bring her out of the dark and into the light.
1. Chapter 1

_Authors Note_

So first of all, I'm new to this site. Hi, what's up. And this site is confusing af for me cuz I'm dumb. So if I screwed things up, I'm sorry just point it out, I'm a-learnin. So I uploaded this story from my Wattpad account (which is under my user Painful_Daydream) and Wattpad is definitely easier than this site, this site is intimidating. Now, I've edited this story thousands of times and I will probably Edit it a thousand times more, that's the price for perfection so bear with this story. I also go to school, since I'm 16 and I deal with a lot of stress and I relieve stress by sleeping, so this book always gets updated slowly and will still have a lot of errors no matter how many times I read it over (cuz I'm always tired), again bear with it. The reason I'm uploading this here is because Wattpad is...childish. It's nice but it's full of immature children commenting "YoUr'E sUcH aN aMaZiNg WrItEr!1!" on legit every story even if it just says "Hi". I want this story to succeed and I feel this site is the only place it will; I want there to be constructive criticism and help with this along with the positive feedback I normally get. This book is rated M for much later chapters as this story progresses deeper and deeper into some deep shlit. So here is my fanfiction, I hope you like it, please proceed to the story. Also theres a kind of important informational chapter on my Wattpad version of this so if you are able to check it out please do, cuz i cant post it here, it gives you oportunities for some stuff in the book.

* * *

The engine of the shiny blue Impala sputtered to a stop as she pulled into the driveway and shut off the car. This was the end. The end of everything I had known before this moment: my parents, my home, the System; everything was being replaced, and the woman sitting in the driver's seat was the one to blame. This woman knew everything about me, through my files. She knew my name, how old I was, where I grew up, why I was in the System to begin with, and so much more. She knew everything about me, yet I was still clueless to anything about her. All I knew was that she was now my adoptive mother, and that was exactly what she expected me to call her: mother. Though what was so special about her? Why should I call her 'mother' when I hadn't even forgotten about my real one? What made her son so special either? Why should I treat him like he was my real sibling when he was just some stranger? What made these two people so extraordinary that I had to replace what I knew for what they have?

So here I am, giving up my old hometown of Tuskbury for this small little cul-de-sac in Peach Creek. Though, I guess I already gave it up when I was thrown into the System. Still, Tuskbury was and forever will be the place I call home, and a short, dead end road and a junkyard will never change that. 'The System', by the way, is what I know Foster Care as. Since it's a very personal subject that I absolutely hate, I refer to it as nothing more than a system that tosses me from one Hell into another.

I gazed out the clear window of the car at the few houses that surrounded me. _Welcome to your new Hell, kiddo_. I stepped out of the vehicle, looking around the unfamiliar neighborhood. It divided into two different colors: red and blue, thanks to the 3D glasses that have come to be a part of me and my everyday appearance. They rested on the bridge of my nose, pushed up to hide my eyes from strangers. They-well, the glasses I had before them- had rested in this same position since they had been put on all those years ago. Christmas of 2005, when I was only 5 years old, was when the whole thing started. My father had given me a pair of 3D glasses as a present. It was meant to be a joke, since he called me his little geek, but it evolved into so much more. After his disappearance I never let the glasses come off, since they were his special gift to me and he was gone. Soon, of course, my old pair began to tear and to save them from destruction I replaced them with my new pair of GoPro glasses. They weren't the ones my father had given me, but they still represented him and my childish personality.

Ms. Kingsley spoke from behind me, pulling me from my thoughts. She stood at the back of the car, digging through the trunk as she talked, "So what do you think, Kassie?" That's me, Kassie Duncan, and it really was. After adoption she still allowed me to keep my birth name, that being one of the few things I could keep from my life before. I gave up my expensive possessions, forked over half my personality, and completely forgot all emotions, save sadness and anger. This lady seemed very pushy, so it was surprising that she didn't force me to alter my name.

I decided not to answer her question and kept my mouth shut, averting the woman's gaze and pretending to find interest in my faded and sharpied Converse. I didn't want to speak; not to her, not to her son, not to anyone. I don't need to talk to them and I don't want to.

She replaced her happy smile with one of pity. My silence was a confirmation of my sadness and fear of the world. She knew what I had gone through before I ended up in the System, but was willing to let life take its chosen course for me. She promised she wouldn't get in the way of it, as long as I promised not to let it get the best of me.

"Well, Kassie, how about we just get you to your room, okay?" she said in a cautious tone, afraid that if she said the wrong thing I'd freak out and go mental. I just nodded as she grabbed my 2 boxes out of the back of the car. These two boxes were my whole life, holding the few possessions I had left: clothes, a few stuffed animals, and my skateboard. I followed her to the front door, re-positioning my bag that hung down across my shoulder and bounced against my leg as I walked.

I looked out at the new neighborhood, catching a couple stares from the other kids that resided here. A breeze blew through the air and lifted my locks of hair that weren't pinned down by my hat. It felt different...different than what I was used to. It told me there was no going back; no going back home or back to how it was.

I entered the house after the woman's son opened the door and jumped back over the couch. "Thank you, Kevin. For once you actually decide not to be a brat." The boy just rolled his eyes and went back to playing video games with his friend, she of which scolding him for being so rude.

I took a moment to look around. The house wasn't as big as I had expected. A small living room was to my right, two couches turned away from the rest of the house and facing a flat-screen. A collection of electronics sat on the shelves below the TV, including a PS4, controllers, DVDs and a Blu-ray player. A hallway separated the living room from the kitchen, which held a breakfast bar, several colorful chairs, and a dining table. The house smelled of cinnamon and mint, reminding me of Christmas and the times my father took me to the store and we'd smell all the candles and other various things to make me smile. The house was peaceful and didn't seem to have intentions of hurting me, but it reminded me of home, so no matter how much it tried it would always hurt. Though it made me feel safe, and the longer I stood the more at home I felt. Still, no matter how beautiful it was or how safe it made me feel, I never wanted to call it home. Nor would I want to call the boy my brother or his mother mine. I wanted to forever be separated from this family.

"Kevin, get off the game and go do something productive!" the boy's mother yelled at him. He complained about it but did what his mother told him. He passed me on his way to the door, giving me a disgusted look. His friend, on the other hand, smiled and waved. Then they were gone, out into the hot, sticky hell known as summer.

"You'll have to excuse Kevin," Ms. Kingsley apologized as we walk toward the stairs, "He wasn't very psyched about having a younger sister when I first told him about you, and I guess he still feels the same way." She stopped halfway up the stairs to look at me. I just nodded. The statement didn't really affect me, it actually made me kind of happy. I didn't want to call him my brother, and he didn't want to call me his sister, and I was fine with that.

She placed yet another pity smile on her face (I wish she'd stop doing that) as we proceeded up the stairs. We reached the top and took a left, walking to the end of the hallway. I let my hand slide against the smooth polished wood of the banister as I walked. She stopped in front of the last door and opened it, providing me enough room to peek my head in. It was a very confusing sight at first but then I started giggling.

The room was an average sized room with cream colored walls, a wooden dresser, and Invader Zim bedspread that went along with a twin size bed. It was pretty nice, considering what I was used to, but at the same time, everything was funny, because the room was trashed. The big wall on the opposite end of the room was covered in newspapers and vandalized with the word "Dork" both spray painted and sharpied in all different colors **(references)**. My Invader Zim bedspread sat halfway on the floor with dirt streaks and an unknown substance, equivalent to oatmeal, smothered on top. Both windows were dark with no sun shining through, and it took me a moment to realize that they were painted over with black paint. The carpeted floor had a collection of feathers in the center and more of them fluttered down from the ceiling, where all 6 1/2 pillows were duct taped and torn open. Where the other half of the 7th pillow was, I had no idea. Ms. Kingsley growled, "Kevin". _And this is the reason we specifically asked to stay an only child!  
_

Ms. Kingsley sighed and pulled the door shut, almost slamming it. "Okay, Kassie. I guess you'll just have to sleep on the pullout downstairs for a few nights until Kevin cleans your room." She starts mumbling to herself about Kevin being a 'disrespectful little brat' as she moves past me to the room on my right. Setting my boxes down in a corner by the closet, she lets out a sigh of relief and faces me. "Alright, kiddo, I have to leave in a few minutes to run some errands. The bathroom is right down the hall, across from your room if you need to go." she moves around the room to grab some things she needs, rattling off the do's and dont's of living here. "I don't care what you do while I'm gone, but please don't go in your room until your brother cleans it. You can watch T.V. if you want and you can play any of Kevin's video games. If he comes home and tells you to get off, tell him payback's a bit...scratch that, just tell him to shut up. You can go play outside as long as you get back here before 9:00." She bent down and kissed my forehead then stood there awkwardly for a second, processing what she did and how I would take it. When I didn't react, she just shrugged and moved on with her getting around.

 _Blech_. I wiped the kiss from my forehead with the back of my hand and walked over to the box containing my skateboard. I pulled it out and opened my bag that now rested on the ground. From it, I pulled out my blue Nintendo 3DS and a black sharpie marker, both of which found their way into the butt pocket of my black skinny jeans.

I ran for the stairs, skipping steps when I went down and trying my best to get out of the house before it killed me. I zoomed past the dining room where Ms. Kingsley was getting ready to leave. She noticed my hasty escape and tried asking for a favor. "Hey, if you see Kevin tell him I want his butt home!" she yelled, but I said nothing as I slammed the door closed behind me.

The humid summer air hit me a few seconds late, sending little beads of sweat down my face by the time I made it to the street. After taking a moment to catch my breath I started off down the road on my skateboard and pulled out my 3DS, turning it on and waiting for it to load. I know it's a bad idea to not pay attention when you're skateboarding, especially in the street, but I don't really care what could happen to me. In this world everything is bad and for a daredevil like me, it's fun to have a play date with danger once in a while. Though, I did look up once or twice, just to make sure I wasn't about to get hit by a semi-truck or fall into a pit of snakes or anything else my imagination could conjure up.

On my way back to the beginning of the dead end street, when my game finally opened and the menu screen popped up, I felt my body collide with something else. My DS dropped from my hands and skidded across the pavement. I, along with my victim, let out a yelp as we hit the ground. I laid there for a fraction of a second before rolling over onto the asphalt and resting on my butt, looking over to see what I hit. Lo and behold, it was a human; a boy to be exact. His shiny, spiky, black hair lay somewhat limp on his face, which was contorted into a look of pain. He looked about my age, 14, but maybe a year younger. I pushed myself up from the ground and held my hand out to the boy. "You OK?" I asked.

He growled, "I swear I'm going to kill whoever-,". He never finished his threat after his eyes opened and he saw me. He said "Whoa" instead and finished with a drawn out laugh. Sighing, I retracted my arm back to my side, rolling my eyes as I did.

"MINECRAFT!" A boy shouted from behind me and I turned to look at him. A ginger boy with a unibrow stooped and picked up my game. He took out the pic and repeatedly tapped it against the screen, his hand becoming a blur from how fast it moved. He laughed a weird laugh, obviously amusing himself.

A boy that stood next to the ginger spoke up, "Ed, that doesn't belong to you. You know very well you shouldn't play with things that aren't yours." He gingerly placed his hand on the side of the electronic, hoping to gently pull it from his friend's hands, but to no avail. The big one was much too interested to give it up. I looked the smaller one up and down, taking notice of his knee-high, red socks that were mostly covered by his purple cargo shorts, and a black beanie that matted a few strands of black hair against his forehead. He looked oddly out of style for a boy, and much different from the normal clothing that his companions wore. Though, I'm sure my appearance must have been a much stranger sight compared to his. The one was obviously laughing at it.

He caught my eye and smiled, politely waving and chuckling a little. I didn't know how to react to him so I just stood there awkwardly, still staring at him.

The boy behind me finally pushed himself off the ground and gasped for air from how much he had been laughing...which he was still doing. "Man you're more of a loser than I am," he wheezed out.

"EDDY!" The beanie-headed boy yelled out. He placed his hands on his hips and scolded his friend's actions, "She only just moved to Peach Creek. For once, can't you shove your outrageous, offensive, loud-mouthed, disappointing behavior out of the way and welcome her to the cul-de-sac like a decent human being?"

"Pfft, c'mon Double D, she's a dork!" He apparently found his words amusing, as he fell back and started to laugh again.

I growled and marched over to him, grabbing a fistful of his shirt and holding him up to eye level. "You know what laughing is for, you little pipsqueak? Laughing is for something that's funny. You're not funny. Your stature may be but you yourself are pathetic, so I'll give you a piece of advice: if you laugh more at yourself and how much of a jerk you are, everyone's lives would be a hell of a lot easier." He growled at my words but decided to laugh instead as he looked me over once again.

I sighed and dropped him, letting him fall onto his back on the asphalt. Dragging my skateboard behind me on the ground, I walked over to the ginger for my DS. I wiped away a tear that was threatening to fall. My emotions were already unstable to begin with and this situation wasn't helping. The ginger saw me wipe my eye and decided to wrap his big arms around me, squeezing me into a hug. "Do not cry little human for Ed is here to protect you!"

I heard the boy 'Double D' gasp, "Oh boy, Ed, I don't think she can breathe."

Eddy spoke up from behind him, "C'mon, Monobrow, drop the little nerd. She's probably got a date with her video games. 'Young love' is an understatement!" As if what he said was the funniest thing in the world, he once again sent himself into a fit of laughter.

The ginger, presumably named Ed, dropped me onto my feet and I chose to stomp over to where Eddy was sitting. He stopped laughing and stood up, ready to fight, but went right back down as I punched him in the gut. He groaned and clutched his stomach "What was that for?!"

"For your parents not wearing a condom!"

Eddy growled and picked himself up, stumbling toward me, but by the time he reached me Ed had already handed me my game and wrapped his arms around the boy, pulling him into a bear hug. "I have made a new friend, Eddy! I feel special!"

The short one muttered, "You are special, where do you think Special Ed came from?"

I speedily walked away from the situation and started toward the house just as Ms. Kingsley was walking to the car. She glanced over her shoulder at me, seeing the boys in the background. "Aww, you made friends already?"

"Hardly." She gave me a sympathetic look and rubbed my hair, climbing into the car and pulling out of the driveway.

I slammed the door behind me as I entered the house. _That was one of the most humiliating things to have ever happened! God, I hate this world!_ I ran upstairs and entered the bathroom, slamming this door as well. The bathroom was a bit cramped, looking like it was placed as an afterthought when the house was built, but it gave me just enough room to let my frustration out. Throwing my hat in the sink, I placed my hands on the counter and stared at my reflection in the mirror. Seeing what I saw, I could tell why Eddy had laughed. _You look insane; messy hair, nerdy outfit, freaking 3D glasses for crying out loud! Why **wouldn't** they laugh?_ I didn't really understand my outfit. I knew I looked like an idiot and I was always insecure about my appearance, why did I torture myself? _Just look at the Game Boy, Kassie. Look at how happy it is, stay positive. Be the Game Boy._ I took a deep breath and rested my head against the counter, curling into myself.

The ring of the doorbell sounded from downstairs, causing my frustration to rise. I growled and ran out of the bathroom, tripping down all 13 steps as I rushed downstairs to answer the door. Normally I'd never check the door, figuring it was an adult that I had no business with, but something told me it was those three stooges back for more entertainment. Sighing, I pulled the door open, the heat of the summer replacing the air conditioning of my house. As I guessed, Beanie stood on my porch, twiddling his thumbs and seeming slightly nervous. I glared at him, remembering what had happened not 5 minutes ago. "What could you possibly come and bother me about now?"

"Good day, uh, Miss," he greeted, overlooking my question. "I've come to your house to, uh, apologize for what transpired a few minutes ago." He nervously rubbed his shoulder, "Eddy was being...well...a jerk. He can get that way sometimes but he does mean well, I promise." He looked to the ground and his face went red "I would also like to apologize for chuckling at your...uh...sense of style." I replaced my glare with a small smile. _At least someone is being nice._

I crossed my arms, shrugged, and leaned against the doorway. "It's alright. But only for you, since you're apologizing for yourself. Eddy, on the other hand, can learn something. It's called 'being a decent person'. You seem to have that down to a T, maybe you could teach him."

"Believe me, I've tried," he said, laughing a little, "And thank you. At least someone recognizes my efforts in being a good samaritan. I would also like to apologize on the behalf of my bigger friend named Ed. He is...special and didn't mean to cause your game any harm."

I slightly laughed, "It's fine, he seems like a very...charming person."

"Much like yourself."

I stared at him for a moment, not knowing how to take that, but I decided to smile as a small blush made its way onto my face. "You're a very sweet person, Beanie," I said somewhat quiet as I stared at the ground.

"HEY, SOCKHEAD! Quit flirtin' will ya, we've got places to be!" Someone called from behind the boy. Looking back, I saw it was Eddy, standing at the end of the driveway being hung on by Ed.

Beanie's face turned a deep shade of red as he heard Eddy's words. He started stuttering, "I-I was not flirting with you, I-I-I promise, I was merely t-trying to apologize for my e-earlier actions!" he pulled his beanie down over his eyes and groaned, "I'm sorry."

I started to giggle, trying to reasure him, "I know you weren't, Beanie, you're just a good samaratin, remember?"

He peeked one eye out from under his hat to look at me, deciding to laugh along with me. "Beanie?" he asked after a moment.

"Sorry," I said in an innocent tone, "I never really caught your name."

"Oh, well in that case," he extended his hand toward me, "My name is Eddward, Edd for short. Although most people just call me Double D."

I smiled and shook his hand, "My name's Kassie. Kassie Duncan."

He pulled his hand away as Ed pulled him from the conversation, "I guess this means I must go. Farewell, Kassie Duncan."

Ed waved too, "Bye, friend!"

"See ya, Beanie, bye Ed." I watched Edd trip off the porch as his friend dragged him away.

I watched the boys as they travelled down my driveway, but before they left, I suddenly remembered something. "Hey, Eddy!"

He turned and groaned, "What do ya want ya nerd?"

"If you want to keep me from punching you in the gut again, you should come and apologize for your own mistakes instead of making other people do it for you. I'll be here waiting." I heard him growl but I shut the door before he could respond.

* * *

I heard the front door slam behind me as I laid on the pulled out couch under multiple colored blankets. It was around 9:30 and Ms. Kingsley had already come home and helped me make up the couch that I would be sleeping on for the next few days. In additon to me being on the couch, I was apparently to be her little lookout to catch Kevin if he tried to sneak inside from being out with Nazz.

"It's back!" I yelled to the woman in the kitchen.

"I could tell," she answered, referencing to how loud 'it' slammed the door. She came out of the kitchen and into the hallway. "Where were you, and oh my _Lord_ , why are you a trash can?"

I peeked over the couch to get a look at what was going on, only to see Kevin covered in a copious amount of trash. He replied to his mother with, "I was tied to a tree to be used as a target."

Ms. Kingsley seemed confused, "What?"

"Eddy forced Ed to tie me up to a tree so Eddy could get packback by using me as target practice!" He yelled at his mother, pointing in the direction of where he had come from, a banana peel sliding off his shoulder.

She groaned and walked back into the kitchen, "I'm not listening to another one of your stories, Kevin. They can't always be the same! Almost every night, you come home smelling like a dump or looking like you'd gotten in a car crash and every single night it's the same story, 'Eddy did this to me!'. Honestly Kevin, when are you just going to tell me the truth?"

"I am!" he growled, obviously irritated with his mother's failure to see that Eddy was a psychotic little demon.

"Kevin-" his mother started, but was cut off by her son, still rebelling her words.

"Oh, Kevin" he mimicked, "those boys are such good little children and would never trap Sarah in a cage, or break your bike 30 million times, or feed EVERYONE IN THE CUL-DE-SAC TO THE KANKERS ALMOST EVERY SINGLE DAY! Please mom, just talk to their parents or something and you'll see they're not stories!"

"No, Kevin, because until you have proof of this happening, I am not going to embarass myself in front of their parents by openly admiting my son needs to be checked into the local asylum."

The boy grumbled at his mother, as stormed off to the bathroom to clean himself. I could hear the curse words coming from his mouth as he passed me by. Sadly, Ms. Kingsley heard none of them as she dismissed his bahavior. "C'mon, Kassie," she said, "Dinner's ready."


	2. Chapter 2

The next two weeks or so went by slower than a herd of turtles. Most of the day was spent inside but sometimes Ms. Kingsley would force me out of the house...that probably wasn't the best idea. After my first encounter with Eddy, who lived right next door to me, our relationship became that of hatred and scheming. He would pick fights with me whenever I went outside and we'd go at it until Edd or Ed had to split us up. The boy was annoying and so infuriating. That's all he was, nothing more, nothing less; just an irritating little brat who bragged about his older brother and made weird...projects.

That being said, I would watch the boys at times, and I'd watch them...build things. Sometimes it would take them several hours and sometimes it would take them the whole day. Kevin told me that they were just suckering the neighborhood kids into handing over all their money, but the boys would always fail because they never figured out the last part of their plan: how to get away with it. Edd, on the other hand, described it as he and his two friends 'concentrating their time in studying the kids of the neighborhood and working to make a couple dollars in the process'. For him it was, I knew that much, but who knew what went on in the self-centered mind of Eddy. Ed was never really apart of the planning process, according to Edd, and shouldn't be treated so harshly just because he hung out with the boys. So Edd was the planner, Eddy was the salesman, and Ed was (in Eddy's mind) the work monkey.

Edd told me why they did everything, the real reason why. It was because they were just kids, kids who didn't want to grow up, kids who just wanted to act like...kids. The other children of the cul-de-sac assume that when you get to junior high you're an adult and should act like one, so you have to conform to the attitude the middle school students have acquired. I felt sorry for them, really. All they wanted to do was earn some money, buy a couple jawbreakers and have some fun. Though, all three boys had a different view of 'fun'.

Edd mentioned that when his parents came home, his mother would occasionally give him a few dollars, where the boys would go into town to the candy store. There were times when Edd could afford more than three jawbreakers and would use his remaining cash to buy candy for some of the other kids in the neighborhood. They would accept them, of course, but their thanks would be accompanied by the rude words the boys had grown accustomed to. The children basically hated them, and even if Ed and Edd didn't want to hurt or get hurt, Eddy made it so they always did. The two Ed's never wanted to cause pain but there was never a way out of it.

Back in my home, my room had been restored after day three. I particularly enjoyed watching Kevin scrub the crusted paint from the windows and have to stuff and sew my pillows back up. Immediately after I moved into my room, Ms. Kingsley decided to go on a shopping and hand-me-down spree. She went down into the basement and found her husband's old PC computer, which looked more like it'd fit a gaming nut than a CEO of a jawbreaker factory.

When I first switched it on it still had all his documents and videos saved to the desktop. Most of them were boring things like building expansion designs, jawbreaker flavors, and reports for his company; you know, just stuff for work. Though I did find a couple of other folders, those being filled with videos and pictures of he and Kevin when Kevin was younger. Kevin looked young, around the age I was when I lost my father and when asked, he told me the pictures were taken a few months before the accident. He and Ms. Kingsley never explained to me what had happened to Mr. Kingsley, or what this 'accident' was, but I figured it was a very touchy subject, so I left it alone. There were a couple other pictures of Mr. Kingsley with his wife. She looked younger than she did now, since it was when Kevin was only seven, and she looked...somewhat familiar. Ms. Kingsley went into my room a few days later and took the pictures and videos off, saving them to a flash drive and keeping it in her purse. I still remember the pictures though and it brought up a memory of someone I used to know but couldn't remember.

I felt Ms. Kingsley had gone out of her way to help me when she started transforming my room into that of a teenage girl's. She bought me a bunch of electronics to go along with my gamer personality: a laptop, three pairs of headphones, a phone, and a bunch of different video games that Kevin didn't own (and that she said he never would after trying to steal them from me). She even bought me some rather expensive art supplies after snooping around my stuff and finding my drawing folder.

Some of the least expensive things she gave me were things that "Kevin didn't want" which just meant she made him hand them over since he didn't use them. These things included an X-box 360 that he had replaced with a PS3 the year before, his old BMX bike he claimed was broken so he could get a newer and cooler one, and a camcorder that he had never used. Ms. Kingsley even gave me her old (and super expensive) Canon photography camera.

Some of the items she gave me though were things I'd always wanted since before the System, like three little Disney figurines for a collection that my father started when I was 4, and a bunch of comics that my little 6-year-old-self was hooked on, a couple months before my mother left. It was like she knew what I was like before and it, surprisingly, made me feel a little warm and fuzzy inside, while also being totally creeped out as to why she knew those things about me. Who knows, though, maybe the information was in my papers.

I feel now like I should have been a little more polite and grateful for the gifts, but when she gave them to me I didn't say a word or even smile. Ms. Kingsley blew it off as me being shy and that on the inside I was jumping for joy. The truth was: I wasn't. I felt she had gone out of her way to help a lost cause such as myself.

So yay, twelve days in my new home, how exciting. Obviously, that was sarcasm, and now that I realize it, 'home' has too big of a meaning, so let's just call this place my temporary prison until I'm 18 and able to move the heck out of here. Maybe I'll be a hoarder/cat lady until I die old and alone.

It was hot today, at least 95 degrees, and I had no idea how to spend a day like this. Kevin had decided to lock me out of the house so he could play video games without me disturbing him. He really was a jerk. The only reason he doesn't like me is that he's not an only child anymore. He even had the nerve to say "go back to the orphanage and live like the little orphan you are", which I could have easily responded with "your real parents are dead" but I'm better than that.

I took a seat on the shaded wood of the porch and leaned my head against the door. The Light Behind Your Eyes by My Chemical Romance played through my earbuds as I sat and thought about life. I had been thinking about many things this morning, my dominant thought being: why am I here? I meant that in three different ways. One being why did Ms. Kingsley adopt me? Why me? Out of all the other boys and girls in the System, why did she take a liking to me, what made me so special? Am I the chosen one? Was I picked by The Ocean or The Claw? Is there some stone-age prophecy I was born to fulfill? Honestly, when I thought about life, I always strayed to why the Earth had humans on it in the first place. Why was the Earth still going, giving us life, letting us survive? We're killing it, why not just say 'Bye!' and give up on us? The Earth is dying and so are we; that was a thought that kept my little brain scrambling at night. After thinking about Earth for a good while I always end up thinking: 'why had my parents had me?' or really, 'what would things be like if there had been one little change in their lives?'. What if they had never met? How different would the world be? What if my dad had never become a marine? Would we have lived in a different place with completely different lives? Would some good person still be alive? Would he still be my best friend? What if they were still here? Would I still be happy?

When the hot sun crept up the porch and to my feet, I decided to move to the front lawn and lay in the shadow cast by a tall oak tree in Eddy's yard. The sky was a light shade of blue and many fluffy clouds sat motionless here and there. A cool breeze swirled through the trees and cooled the August heat that stuck to my skin.

The world around me was peaceful and quiet, unlike my former neighborhood. I'd always had trouble finding peace in Tuskbury with all the cars, the people, the sounds; laughter, car horns, children. The only sound I could actually find peace in was a freight train that passed by on the tracks over the hills every night. One would come by every evening and blow its horn for all to hear. It was never too loud or too quiet; just enough to slip me into my dream world and the beautiful comfort of sleep. It was always the same atmosphere in Tuskbury. Here, though, it was always changing. Today it was hot and quiet, yesterday it was cool and crazy, and tomorrow would be a mystery to all but the one who controlled fate.

The last two weeks had been very stressful for me. It was hard for me to adapt to my new environment since I had lived in the same town ever since I was born, and leaving it scared me so much. This move wasn't like the move into the System. When my parents left me I was only 6, which meant I was gullible and clung to so much hope, so I thought my parents would come back for me. I was so scared when I met my first new family. They wanted to take me home and replace my parents, replace my life, and take away everything I had known. So I did my best to make them hate me, forcing them to take back their decision and put me back in the System. I hoped that my parents would come back for me, so I decided I'd keep rebelling every new family until they put me back in my father's arms...but they never did. Now I felt nothing but fear and sadness. I guess I don't really remember what it's like to be truly happy. When I turned 10, I finally got it through my head that my parents were never coming back, and fighting to stay in the System was starting to get childish. I learned that I was alone and that no one was going to fix it, so I locked up every ounce of life I had left in me, leaving behind a hollow shell. No one seemed to want to adopt a hollow shell.

The world settled around me and the temperature wrapped me up in a blanket, calming the war in my mind. Before I knew it, my music started drifting me off into a world of sleep. Of course, I have a really good case of bad luck, so it wasn't a surprise that Ed managed to throw a basketball over the backboard of the hoop in Eddy's driveway and leave my stomach feeling flattened. I groaned and rolled over in the grass not 10 minutes after I fell asleep, clutching my stomach and curling up into the fetal position.

"Ed, you dolt!" Eddy screamed at his big friend, "Now I'll never get my ball back!"

"Haha, your face turns even more red when you're mad, Eddy." I could hear their shoes scraping along the pavement as Eddy probably started to chase him.

The grass rustled at my side and a hand rested on my shoulder. I opened my eyes to see Edd kneeling beside me. "Are you alright, Kassie? I'm so sorry that our ball caused you any pain, we were just-"

I groaned, "Please, just help me up Edd." He stood and gently grabbed my hand, pulling me to my feet.

"Well, that's the first time I've heard a friend call me by my given name in a while. It's different to hear someone other than Mother or Father use it," he said quietly to himself. His attention turned to the two boys chasing each other in Eddy's driveway before he said, "I don't think Eddy has any scam to sucker me into helping him with this afternoon. Would you care to go to the park with me?"

* * *

"So, are you adjusting to Peach Creek alright?" Edd asked when his swing finally settled to a stop next to mine. We had been at the park for nearly an hour now, playing 20 questions while we were swinging and when we were laying in the grass by the sandbox. I learned a lot about him through the game, though no real secrets, just the basics. Eddy had come by a little after Edd left him so he could drag him back to their game, but the annoyance was captured by Ed's demonic little sister.

I answered his question with "Yeah, Kevin's really nice to me and I really like my mom." I was now living a lie. Kevin was torture and I was wary of his mother. She was nice and all, but there was something about her that I didn't trust. Then again, I'm always paranoid when I enter a new family.

"What about the rest of our little cul-de-sac?"

"Well," I said sheepishly, "I haven't really met anyone besides you three." I lowered myself into my swing and rested my feet on the chain.

Edd looked at me in disbelief. "Really? It's been two weeks, what has been more interesting to you than social interaction?"

I just shrugged and blushed, "I don't really care much for 'social interaction'. I'm too much of an introvert. Too much to process at once and too many emotions to keep in check." I suddenly became very uncomfortable with having a conversation about my insecurity of talking to people in front of an obvious socialite. Curse my lazy arse for never wanting to go out and meet people when I was only a stupid child.

He gave a confused facial expression and said, "You are a prankster, though, are you not? You also said you yearned to make art your occupation and your metaphorical life. You wanted to share that with the world. How can you be introverted and despise being social yet have a bubbly personality and hold interesting conversations with complete strangers?"

I sighed, "If you're referring to yourself, you're not a complete stranger, I've known you for two weeks now, I've even given you a nickname. Your name is Edd with two D's, but I prefer Beanie, you have an obsession with using big words my small brain can't comprehend, and you're a very fun person to be around."

He smiled a bit and laughed at the nickname, "I'm glad you feel that way, Kassie, but still, knowing the name of a person isn't the same as knowing their character. I may seem like a good-hearted person on the exterior, but you don't know what's on the inside."

"Is the inside bad?" I asked, sounding almost childish.

He shrugged, "I'd say no, but that's the exact point I am trying to make: you don't know."

A moment of silence passed between us before I answered his point. "Then help me," I sat up and pushed off the ground with my feet, sending my swing back into motion.

He looked at me confused and said, "With what?"

"Finding out what's on the inside. I want to know what makes you you, what makes Eddy himself, and the same with Ed. I want to get to know people and, I dunno, I want you to help me."

Edd sat silently for a moment, pondering my request. "Well, it seems like it would be the perfect opportunity to learn how you fare with strangers, and I would very much like to get to know you more," he paused for a moment before giving a small nod, "Kassie, I am going to help you be a socialite!" he smiled and started swinging again.

I smirked at him, "Nerd."

He gave me a shocked look but quickly transformed it into a smile upon hearing my tone. "I'm proud of it."

* * *

Edd and I walked along the sidewalk, keeping sure that Eddy was nowhere to be seen. Edd feared that if Eddy found him he'd be dragged away to help think up some incompetent plan that would immediately turn into a disaster. That or Eddy would turn into the equivalent of an enraged gorilla for letting him get dragged off by Sarah. The boy had a short fuse, best not be around him when it's blown.

The first stop on our little meet and greet was a little farm next to Edd's house. It apparently belonged to a 17-year-old foreign boy named Rolf. No one knew where he was originally from and the only time he mentioned home he called it "The Old Country". Edd said that he was a very...mysterious boy.

Edd and I hopped up the porch steps and rang the doorbell. After pressing the button a few times, the door was finally opened by a ginger boy. The first thing I noticed about him was his outrageously long hair that was colored a light shade of orange and stopped just below the body part you would call his butt. His eyes were basically non-existent, covered in equal proportions by his hair.

"Hey, Double Ed" he spoke, "and...chick? What's up, man, whatcha want?"

"Oh, hello, Ezeke. We were just wondering if Rolf was home."

"Shy-eyes? Who be at Rolf's door?" a blue-haired boy walked into view from behind Ezeke. "Double Ed boy? Where be the big one and spiky-haired Ed boy?"

"Oh, they're not accompanying me today. I'm just taking our newest resident around the cul-de-sac. Kassie, I'd like you to meet Rolf" he gestured to the blue-haired boy "and Ezeke" he pointed to the ginger. "Rolf and Ezeke, this is Kassie."

"Kassie?" Ezeke whispered the name to himself a couple times before his eyes lit up and he looked at me, "Hey, you're Kevin's sister, right? I'm Ezekiel, Kevin's cousin, but you can just call me Ezeke." He smirked at me "Ya know, my aunt mentioned she'd be adopting a teenager. Didn't think it'd be a pretty nerd girl like yourself." I choked on my saliva. Great, my cousin's flirting with me. _The reason I hate boys_.

The blue-haired boy spoke up. "Rolf thinks Pretty Girl is shy." I immediately turned a light shade of red at the name but bowed my head to hide it. _Kill me_. "Rolf is right, is he not? Either way, Rolf welcomes you indoors." He and Ezeke moved behind the door and blue boy spread his arm out, motioning us inside.

Rolf shut the screen door and led Edd and me into the living room, Ezeke trailing behind. A very antique looking couch sat in the middle of the living room and a similar looking chair sat just across from it, both separated by a big, red rug. Rolf motioned for me and Edd to sit on the couch. I did as told, crinkling the plastic slipcover that laid atop it for protection.

"Shy-eyes! No jumping on Rolf's furniture!" Rolf yelled as Ezeke flopped down in the chair. He put his hands up in defense but made a face at Rolf when his back was turned to turn off the tv.

"So, Ed-boy. What brings you and your lady friend to Rolf's home?" Rolf asked, sitting on the arm of Ezeke's chair.

"Well, Rolf, Kassie moved in twelve days ago and she so far has had no social interaction. I willingly agreed to take her around the cul-de-sac and introduce her to all of our residents."

"Do any of those residents include those stupid Kankers?" Ezeke asked, showing a look of disgust at the name.

"Heavens no, Ezeke. I would never go near that demonic trailer park." Edd responded. "Besides, Kassie has already had a few rough confrontations with Eddy. It's best I keep her safe with... normal people."

Ezeke snorted. "You already know there's no such thing as normal in this cul-de-sac, Double D."

"Who are the Kankers?" I interrupted, slightly curious.

"A couple of demonic whores," Ezeke answered, still showing his disgusted look.

"Ezeke!" Edd exclaimed, shocked at his choice of words. Ezeke just rolled his eyes.

I was still confused, "No seriously, who are the Kankers?"

Rolf spoke up before Ezeke could repeat his earlier statement. "The Kankers are the demons of this fun-loving cul-de-sac." His face and voice turned dark as he spoke. "They are Cthulhu's demon spawns and want nothing more than to cause destruction and pain. They are ruthless girls that live in the evil depths of the trailer park. Never go to the trailer park, Pretty Girl. It is a dangerous place that not even Rolf, the Son of a Sheppard, nor Rolf's father, the Sheppard, would go. The sheeps would rather graze in Hell than near the sirens' cave..."

Rolf finished speaking and all three of us just stared at him. We were utterly confused. "...ok," I said and tried to change the subject. "So, what animals do you have on your farm, Rolf?"

Rolf's eyes lit up at the question. "Would Pretty Girl like to meet Victor?"

* * *

I closed the screen door behind me as we entered the backyard, where Rolf's farm was. Rolf was looking around the yard with an annoyed look, trying to find something that apparently wasn't where it was supposed to be.

"Victor!" Rolf yelled...nothing happened. A moment passed before Rolf yelled again, "Victor!...Where is that animal?" A second later, a dirty, white goat emerged from the inside of a small wooden shack and bleated at him. A small gray goatee was grown at the tip of his chin and a brass cow bell attached to a red collar was placed around his neck. He sported a unibrow, much like Rolf's and Ed's.

I immediately fell in love. "Aww, he's so cute," I said, walking through the open gate of his pen, dodging small piles of manure.

Rolf crouched down and put an arm over Victor's back and the other hand on the goat's stomach. He looked at me strangely. "Cute?" He seemed confused at my words. "Victor is a powerful beast. He does not deserve such a demeaning label." I ignored him and placed a hand on the goats head, in between his two horns, and scratched.

Victor seemed to like the attention and raised his unibrow at me, removing the dead look from his face. He stepped closer to me and licked my shirt. It must have tasted good to him because he proceeded to take it in his mouth and chew on it.

"Victor!" Rolf yelled. The goat stopped his actions and looked to his owner. "Pretty Girl is guest. We do not eat guests' clothing!" Victor's eyebrow went back down and he spat out my shirt, which now had a bite mark at the end of it. He decided we weren't interesting anymore and turned around to go back into his shed, his small gray tail swishing back and forth as he walked.

Rolf turned his attention from the goat and called out another name. "Wilfred!" An oink could be heard coming from a chicken coop opposite Victor's pen. "Wilfred!" he walked over to the chicken coop and grabbed Wilfred by the sides. The pig squealed and tried to escape Rolf's grasp, but Rolf was stronger and he threw the pig onto his shoulder after he pulled him from the coop. The chickens made a lot of noise and spilled out of their chicken coop and into the yard. Wilfred's fat butt had been blocking the exit, so the chickens had been stuck in their coop for who knows how long.

Rolf plopped Wilfred on the ground, who stopped his fighting and just sat down with a derpy look. I giggled; he was adorable. I had always liked pigs. I walked up to Wilfred and scratched his head like I had Victor. He liked the attention just as much, and even fell onto his back, begging for a belly rub. His curly pink tail wagged as much as it could.

"Wilfred! How dare you turn soft." Rolf picked the pig back up and set him down in his pen with a couple other pigs. "You are a man, pig! Act like one."

He left the pig and ran to a big, green shed on the opposite end of the yard. He swung the door open and entered the building. He returned a second later with a rope in his hand. The rope was connected to the neck of a cow. "This beast is Beatrice," Rolf exclaimed, eyeing the cow proudly. She mooed in response, then bent down to feed herself, pulling up all the grass that could fit in her mouth. I stayed where I was, fighting the urge to go up and pet her, knowing she would probably turn soft and annoy Rolf even more.

He looked to me, "So what does Pretty Girl think of Rolf's farm?"

"It's amazing! I love the animals. They're so..." I refrained from saying the word cute, since he obviously didn't like the name "...nice." Beatrice mooed in response, sounding displeased with my answer, but Rolf smiled wide, looking around his farm proudly. A crash and a scream suddenly broke the moment and we all looked in the direction of Ed's house. We all muttered "Eddy".

Edd groaned. "I'm sorry, Rolf. But Kassie and I should really get going." He ran toward the side of the house and I followed, waving goodbye to the boys. Edd unlocked the fence gate and pushed it open, keeping it open for me and closing it when I was through. We sprinted across the street to the green house 3 down from mine.

Eddy lay in Ed's yard, Sarah's knee pinned in his back and her arm around his throat. Broken bits of wood lay scattered on the lawn surrounding the two. Eddy's face was red and he was coughing out insults at Sarah.

"Beg for mercy!" She growled at him.

He growled back, "Never".

Ed was standing in the corner of the yard, looking nervous and shaking, not knowing what to do.

Edd ran up and tried to push Sarah off of Eddy, but she just pushed him back, sending him to the ground. This pissed me off, and I knew I had to intervene to defend my friend. I ran up to Ed's little sister and grabbed the arm that was around Eddy's throat, gripping it hard and pulling it away from him. He immediately began to cough and gasp for air.

I proceeded to put both of her arms behind her back and pull her to her feet. She struggled to get away from me, but I was bigger and stronger than her, so her attempts to escape were useless. She finally gave up and went limp, falling to the ground on her knees and pretending to cry. I made eye contact with Edd, who smiled weakly and helped Eddy up.

I dragged Sarah to the front door and opened it, pushing her inside. I scolded her for being a little demon and that if I ever caught her physically harming another person I would tie her upside-down in a tree and leave her there till her parents came home. Ed came up behind me and intervened, trying to defend his sister but not side with her.

Sarah pushed her older brother out of the way and stood in front of me, trying to be intimidating. "I'm telling my mom on you, weirdo!" She snarled. I just smiled and raised an unpleasant finger at her unpleasant face. She growled and tried to tackle me, but Ed wrapped his arms around her and carried her back inside, closing the door. I could hear her shouts of protest grow softer as they walked farther away from the door and I walked farther away from the house.

I walked back to Eddy and Edd. "I didn't need your help, Kassie!" Eddy yelled at me.

"Well be happy, you little brat, because you got it anyway." I gave an over-exaggerated bow to annoy him.

The boy scowled at me and pushed Edd off of him, sending him back onto his butt. Eddy stalked off back to his house, so Edd and I were left on the sidewalk. I held out a hand to the boy. He took it and I pulled him to his feet. "You okay?" I asked.

"Thank you, Kassie. I'm fine," he answered. I looked up at the sky and saw the familiar scarlet color that meant the sun was setting. The sound of a car engine pulled our attention to the road as the blue Impala pulled into the driveway of my 'temporary prison'.

Edd and I walked down the sidewalk side by side, not talking about what happened. Ms. Kingsley stepped out of the car and grabbed her purse out of the seat. She turned around and noticed me, "Hey, look at that, you finally left the house on your own. Hello, Edd."

"Hello, Ms. Kingsley," Edd answered, giving a small wave.

"So, what have you two been up to?" she asked, walking up the porch steps and entering the house. Of course, the door was unlocked. _Stupid Kevin_.

"Just hanging out at the park," I answered, quietly, still not comfortable talking to her. "Edd took me over to Rolf's house and I met Rolf and Ezeke." I walked through the door, closing it after Edd walked in behind me.

"Finally met your cousin? Well, what sucks is that he lives in that godforsaken trailer park, where you aren't allowed to go. I don't want you anywhere near those Kanker girls."

I just rolled my eyes and leaned against the back of the couch. "How bad can they be?"

"She's right, Kassie," Edd spoke up. "You shouldn't go near them. They're scary."

"They're evil," Kevin said, appearing out of seemingly nowhere and pushing past Edd to get into the kitchen. Ms. Kingsley leaned on the breakfast bar after setting down her purse and started clearing off the mess that was on top. Edd took a seat at one of the plastic chairs at the breakfast bar.

Kevin came back from the fridge with a Mountain Dew can and sat down in a chair next to Edd.

"Hello, Kevin," Edd greeted the demon.

"Dork."

"Kevin, play nice," Ms. Kingsley scolded, as she looked through the mail I had placed on the counter earlier in the day.

I smirked at him, "Yeah, Kevin, play nice." He glared daggers at me while drinking his Mountain Dew.

I walked behind Ms. Kingsley and opened the door of the fridge, pulling out two cans of Mountain Dew. I threw one at Edd, who surprisingly caught it. "Thank you," he said simply and set the can in front of him.

Ms. Kingsley sighed and threw the junk mail in the trash. "I'm going to start dinner. Are you staying for dinner Edd? I don't want you to have to fend for yourself tonight." Fend for himself? What does she mean? _I knew she was hiding something!_

"I guess that would be fine, Ms. Kingsley," he answered softly, his face reddening from what looked like embarrassment.

I smile and pull on his arm. "C'mon, let's go to my room."

"You keep that bedroom door open, young lady!" Ms. Kingsley yelled after me, and I felt a blush creep across my face as mental images of her reasoning entered my mind. _Get those out of your head, ya pervert_.

* * *

Edd laid on my bed, his half empty Mountain Dew can resting on his stomach, and his eyes fixated on the window beside him. "So dark," he said, half zoned-out as he stared at the night sky.

"Yeah, kind of like my soul." We had been in my room for an hour now, waiting for Ms. Kingsley to finish the latest episode of Cupcake Wars. She refused to do anything (including watching whatever she was cooking) until it was over. Edd and I had kept our question game going for a while before we just fell into a comfortable silence.

I slammed my colored pencil down on my desk and yelled, "I'm done!" He jumped at my loud voice and fell off the bed, spilling his Mountain Dew in the process. I covered my mouth to muffle my giggling.

"Please, Kassie, never do that again."

I giggled, "Poor Beanie." I picked up the drawing that I had been working on and brought it over to him as he sat on the bed again."You can keep it," I said, gently setting the paper on his stomach and setting the now empty Mountain Dew can on top. I walked back to my desk and started putting my colored pencils and papers away.

He spoke up after a couple minutes of admiring my work, "You know, you're a really good artist, Kassie. What do you do with your drawings?"

I shrugged, "I normally stick them in the back of my drawing folder. If they were really good I'd normally hang them on the wall, but I haven't made any that were good enough to decorate my room with yet."

"Are you kidding me?!" Edd yelled, making me jump and drop a colored pencil. He sat up and looked at me, "That's a waste of a talent! You should sell your drawings, they're amazing! Maybe you could even give drawing lessons to some of the kids around town, like Jimmy."

I snorted, "Yeah, like people would buy my drawings." I shook my head and continued putting my art supplies away. The picture I gave him was a small Edd portrait that had the word 'Beanie' sharpied at the top. It wasn't anything big and special and I could tell he was just trying to boost me up and make me happy... unfortunately it was working.

He sighed, "You say that as if your art is terrible. People would pay good money for them. They're good enough. They're better than good, they're astounding!" He flashed me a huge grin and I couldn't help but smile back at him and laugh a bit. _Great, he's contagious._

We sat in a comfortable silence for a few moments as I pondered the idea of selling my art. I decided I'd think about it another time. "Anyway, thanks for everything today. I had a lot of fun."

"You're welcome. I'm glad I could help. Though, there still are some people you need to meet," he said. "Should we meet in the park tomorrow. 2:00?"

I nodded, "Yeah. Sounds good."

Ms. Kingsley yelled from downstairs. "Kassie, Edd, Kevin! Dinner's ready!"

I heard Kevin's bedroom door open. "Took you long enough," he rudely exclaimed. We heard the sound of his troll feet stomping down every single step.

Edd and I laughed at the noise before he smiled and pulled on my arm. "C'mon. I'm starving."


	3. Nightmare 1

**There will be one of these every couple chapters. They're short, but they end up explaining a lot.**

* * *

The world was dark; a vast wasteland of nothing. The only sound was from a creaky old swing-set to my left. My creaky old swing-set connected to my dark, broken tree-house; lost and destroyed in the sea of forgotten memories. In front of me lay a house: big, white, and broken. This was once my castle; a place of magic, fun, and excitement. Now, it was just a pile of wood and white orbs. This was my home...this was my castle...this is my nightmare. A looming shadow of loneliness and despair.

Bright, white blips dotted the ruins. These were my memories. Memories I had cherished for years. These were my lifelines; little balls of magic and memories that allowed me to remember what used to be; they were my everything... _were_. Growing up, my memories and dreams had gotten worse. I had times where I couldn't remember the important things that happened that I so loved...other times I could remember everything-every word, every detail, every _feeling_.

The blue pickup still sat in the driveway; rusted, old, and broken. Just like the house and just like the swing-set. A few memories sat here and there, 3 in the back and 2 in the cab. Just one touch of the orbs and I could relive my memories. I could be happy, even just temporarily. That's all I wanted. I wanted to touch just one. I wanted to remember...but I couldn't move out of the little bubble I was trapped in.

I could see the bubble formed around me, the light of the orbs bouncing off of it. It was taunting me. It wanted me to suffer, to see my happiness be shattered to nothing. There was no escaping it. There was no getting out of here. I was here so I could suffer. This was just a nightmare-a nightmare where I could never remember the fun. I could only see the ruins, and I could only remember what happened. I could only remember what caused me to leave my home.

The nightmare was starting. The world was bright, the sun was shining, and the house was fixed. My bubble moved inside the house, positioning me in the spot I was. I was peeking out behind the wall in the living room looking at the front door, which was open. Then I saw the man-the well-dressed man in his uniform, stepping out of his vehicle. He walked up to the screen door and knocked, giving me a small, sad smile as he looked at me through the glass. The memory of my mother walked past me to the door. I used to remember the worry on her face, but when the memory passed the face was blurred. I couldn't remember what she looked like, but we both knew something had happened, something about my father. The conversation between the man and my mother was one I could never forget, but could also never remember. The words were muffled like I was underwater. Just like my mother's blurred face, I couldn't remember all they said; I could only remember the 4 words: your husband has disappeared.

Then the nightmare ended with my world, quite literally, crashing down. The house shook, tossing pictures from the walls and raining plaster from the ceiling like there was an earthquake. My mother and the man just stood there, unaffected by it. A picture dropped in front of my feet: My mom, my dad, and me during my 4th Christmas. I was lifted onto my father's shoulder and my mother was standing next to him. Their faces were blurred and mine was so happy. I had no idea what was going to happen, and neither did they.

My father was my life. He was the only one who could make me happy...and he was gone. My home...my castle...my imagination...were all gone.

The house collapsed and the world went dark. It was back to destruction, except for the space my mother and the man occupied. Their glow creepily illuminated the wall by the front door. They stood there, their lights flickering as the dream was ending. He was now leaving, walking back to his car after a lengthy conversation with my mother. He got in his car and disappeared. My mother closed the door and leaned against the broken wall, sinking to the floor with her head in her hands. This was when everything started. Once we figured out my father was gone, things were never going to be the same. The memory faded and the world went completely black. It was over and my bubble was now shattered, letting me fall into the darkness. My scream echoed around the dead, damaged world. It was empty...dark...and painful. My scream continued as I woke up, my voice adding to the hollow darkness of my room: "Dad!". It would always be the end.


	4. Chapter 3

"Kassie, eat your cereal, it's getting soggy," Ms. Kingsley called from the stove. I groaned and pushed the bowl of Chunky Puffs away from me, resting my forehead against the breakfast bar. The days after a nightmare could be summed up in three words: boring, confusing, and painful.

I couldn't stop replaying the dream in my mind. The man, my mother, the picture...it was all a memory. A memory turned into a nightmare because the house never really collapsed after the man left and the world never stopped. It kept moving and it left my father behind. He was just one person in a world of many; but when he disappeared, my world was the one that was destroyed...everything fell apart. My father disappeared...my mother left...and I was stuck here. Nothing in this world could fix my shattered, hollow shell of a person. I don't even remember what they look like; it was all one huge blur. Lost, fuzzy memories from a 6-year-old's mind. Where are the pictures? They were taken by the same hands that threw me into the System.

Ms. Kingsley's voice buzzed in my ears, but I didn't register what she was saying. I was too out of it to think straight. I lifted my head from the counter and checked the clock: 10:30 am. I wouldn't be meeting Edd at the park for another 4 hours. To be honest, I didn't even feel like meeting him today. I wanted to get away from this house, I wanted to get away from Ms. Kingsley and her son, I wanted to do something to take me away from reality, but even my fantasy world was completely screwed up.

"Kassie," Ms. Kingsley rested her arms on the counter and stared at me. With the intensity of her stare, it was almost as if she was looking straight into my soul. I looked into her eyes, the familiar dark blue tint being burned into the back of my memory. "Tell me what's wrong, sweetheart." The name struck a nerve, and I put a slightly disgusted look on my face to show it. She realized her mistake and backed off, standing back up and turning back to the stove to tend to her pancakes. I rested my head back on the counter. "You know you can talk to me, Kassie," she said, "I'm not going to turn you away."

I remained silent. I refused to utter a single word all morning. My language had been reduced to animal noises and silence. I didn't feel like talking to anyone about anything, especially about the dream, and especially to my "mother". I closed my eyes, bringing Ms. Kingsley's into my mind. Only one word could describe what was behind them: secrets. She knew something about me, something about my past, something _I_ didn't even know.

Ms. Kingsley threw her spatula down on the counter in frustration; another pancake burned, another wasted life. She spun on her heels and came back to rest on the breakfast bar. "Kassie, will you just say something! You can't just not talk. Something's bugging you and I want to know what it is." We stared at each other for the longest time. Her breathing was heavy from frustration and my expression was dull from lack of emotion. I looked back into her eyes...so many secrets.

I knew she would keep probing me and that my answers would be silence. So I did what any normal teenager would: I got up from my chair and left without saying a word. I sauntered off up the stairs to my room, not caring about my hunger or Ms. Kingsley's shouts of protest. "Kassie, get back here. NOW!" I just kept climbing. Today's gonna suck, I've gotta live with that.

My room was dark and shadowed. I didn't really have any motivation today, not even to open the stupid blinds. I liked it more when it was dark. To me, the world was slowly dying, and I was dying with it. I sighed and pulled out my phone, setting an alarm for 2:00 pm. I really needed a nap.

* * *

I could hear it...in the back of my mind...that annoying sound..."nyan nyan nyan nyan nyan nyan nyan nyan..." why won't it shut up?!

My eyes slowly opened and I looked out into the dark void known as my room. My phone...was nowhere to be seen, as the annoyance of Nyan Cat played through its speakers. I wiped the drool from my cheek and groaned, sitting up in bed and pulling my phone out from under my butt. I fussed with the overheating screen for a minute before finally unlocking the phone and shutting off the alarm. I sat on my bed for a second, confused as to what was going on, why the house was quiet, and why it felt so late yet so early. Like I said, days after nightmares were confusing (and so was waking up from naps).

I pulled myself up from my bed, my sheet wrapped around my leg, trying to pull me back into the world of comfort and sleep. With great difficulty, and a hard fall to the floor, I managed to pry the bedding from my leg and get ready for the day. I found my jeans on the floor, where they had been laying for the past 13 hours, and threw them onto my bed. I went over to my dresser and pulled out a pair of Invader Zim underwear and a Gir bra. I threw said clothing onto my bed near my jeans and proceeded to go through my closet to find a white game-boy t-shirt. Why are all my clothes exactly the same?

I put all my clothes into a pile and switched outfits, my pajamas being replaced with a "normal" everyday outfit. The clock on my nightstand read 2:05. _Great_ , _5 minutes late, I'm never going to hear the end of it._ I grabbed my beanie and my glasses off my dresser, placing both of them upon their designated spots on my body. Walking out of my bedroom, I pulled my jacket off the back of my desk chair and slid it on, pushing the sleeves up to my elbows.

The house was quiet outside of my room. Ms. Kingsley had left for work at 12:00, leaving Kevin in charge of the house as usual, who was most likely still asleep or out and about with Nazz. I entered the kitchen, trying to find a snack to satisfy the hungry monster in my stomach that refused to stop growling at me. A plate of pancakes, blacker than my soul, sat on the breakfast bar with a note set on top: **Enjoy :)**. _Is she joking? Please tell me she's joking. And what the frack are you smiling at you little ink smiley punk?!_

There wasn't much else in the kitchen to eat besides a few containers of yogurt that had expired last week, some string cheese packages, and 33 boxes of Nickelodeon-themed macaroni and cheese. Sadly, there was no time to turn SpongeBob characters into food, so I grabbed a 12 pack of Stringy Cheesey Singles and stuck the sticks into my pockets. I stopped by the door and pulled on my Converse and once again fell over because I am clumsy and have utterly no balance or self-control. I pulled a cheese stick apart from the others when I was done with my shoes and opened the package, pulling apart the cheese string by string as I made my way to the park.

I shuffled my way through the grass of the playground and sat down next to Edd under the shade of three tall trees. Other than murmuring a "You're late", the boy just barely acknowledged my existence as he kept his eyes closed and his body facing the sky. He looked more relaxed today than how I usually saw him. He seemed calm, less jumpy, and overall happy. He had a small, cute smile on his face and I couldn't help but stare at him. He seemed so at peace.

"It's not polite to stare, Kassie," he said. He finally opened his eyes and looked at me, his lips still holding the adorable smile. I stuck my tongue out at him (at which he giggled) and lied down next to him, closing my eyes and thinking about how the day had gone thus far. Even sitting with Edd was torture. Not because he was a pain to be around, but because I couldn't tell him what was wrong. It didn't seem right to dump my problematic nightmares on an innocent person, though I desperately needed help. Edd broke my thoughts as he started quietly whistling a weird tune that sounded like it would belong to an early '90s show.

"What are you whistling?" I asked, looking up at the shiny, blue sky.

"Something Eddy supposedly created," he answered. "He said it's going to be our little theme of sorts, a tune we can whistle while we work on our...projects. He said it 'came to him from the heavens', a 'rare and beautiful' seed planted within his enormous head. Said 'seed' seemed to inflate his ego by 25%."

"You hang out with the biggest dork I've ever heard of," I whispered.

He chuckled slightly, "Yeah, I guess I do. But he's...a good dork."

I scoffed, "He's an egotistical nuisance, that's what he is. He loves money and nothing else."

The boy sighed, "He may seem like an egotistical nuisance when you first meet him, but he's a really good...egotistical person once you get to know him. Yes, he does love money, but he loves his friends more."

"I thought you said he 'drags you into messes without a second thought' and 'blames things on you and Ed to try and get out of trouble'."

"He's not exactly dragging us into it, he just follows his little philosophy of 'If we fail, we fail together'. As for blaming...Eddy has other problems to deal with...things much worse than some cul-de-sac children. Ed and I willingly sacrifice our safety to help him."

"What problems?" I asked, turning my head to look at him.

His expression turned serious and sad, "I took an oath that I'd never tell anyone the personal details Eddy has shared with me about his life. I'm his best friend and I intend to keep the private things private."

I sighed, "You really are a good friend. What did he do to deserve you?"

"Accepted me at the very beginning. He and Ed took me under their wings when we were only toddlers. They helped me through the years and I helped them. We became an unstoppable trio: Ed, Edd, and Eddy; three troublemakers ready for anything." He chuckled, "Things have changed a lot since we were toddlers, bad things have happened, but no matter how many fights we get into, we always stay together; we're inseparable."

I looked at him and he looked at me and we shared a smile. Even if things were messy, there was always something good. Eddy's a pain, but he can be good, and he has been good.

Edd sighed and stood up, cracking his back when he was on his feet. "Well, I think we should go see someone new. You need a girl to hang out with and the friend I have in mine is one of the few girls in the cul-de-sac." He turned to me and held out his hand in an offer to help me stand. I obliged and let him pull me to my feet...well _try_ to pull me to my feet; he didn't have much muscle to work with. He was embarrassed about it but I made sure not to say anything.

Before we could walk out of the park, a boy yelled from above us in the playset. "Land ho, Plank!" he yelled, peeking his head out over the railing, "Those 12 torturous months at sea are finally over! Arr, matey, the treasure should be just below the quicksand!" he shounted, pointing to the sandbox. The boy then grabbed onto the railing and jumped over it, crashing straight into Edd. Edd let out the sound of a strangled cat as he and the boy hit the ground. The boy quickly rolled off of him, pulling a small piece of plywood with him across the woodchips. "Yikes, sorry Double D, I didn't realize you were below me!" The boy paused a second and held up the piece of plywood to his ear, "Plank says he's sorry too. He hopes he didn't leave any splinters in your head."

I put my arm under Edd's and pulled him to his feet, brushing off the collection of wood chips on his back. Edd chuckled slightly, "It's fine, Jonny. No serious harm was done," he paused and gave him a confused look. "What were you doing?"

He smiled wide, "Plank and I were playing pirates! There's a treasure chest under the sandbox!" he yelled as if we weren't 3 feet away from him. "Who are you?" he asked, looking to me "I've never seen you around here! My name's Jonny, and this is Plank!" He turned the plywood around and shoved it in my face. The thing stared at me with its scary blue smile and its unsymmetrical eyes. The thing gave me the creeps.

"Oh, um, I'm Kassie," I said, never taking my eyes off the freakish piece of plywood. "I'm Kevin's...'sister'. I moved in a couple weeks ago."

"Kevin? He's a bully." Jonny held up Plank to his ear and paused for a second. He then gasped and said, "Plank, what a pottymouth! C'mon buddy, let's go find that buried treasure." Jonny ran off toward the sandbox, leaving Edd and I confused by the playset.

"Well," I said after a minute, "that was...interesting."

"It always is," Edd said and lightly grabbed my arm, pulling me toward the gate.

* * *

We arrived at a small white house near the end of the cul-de-sac. Edd stepped up to the porch and rang the doorbell, waiting a moment before ringing it again...and again...and again. I pulled on my gloves while we waited and fussed with the placing of my beanie. It took at least five minutes for someone on the inside to hear the doorbell and finally open the door.

Standing behind the screen door was Nazz, still in her pajamas with her short blonde hair a total mess. She smiled and opened the door. "Hey, Kass! What are you doin here? 'Sup Edd!" Edd just stood there smiling shyly and staring at Nazz's face, seemingly captivated by her energetic smile. She smiled at him but furrowed her eyebrows. "You okay, dude?" she asked, confused at Edd's awkward behavior.

Edd snapped halfway out of his little trance; still smiling like an idiot but able to speak. "Huh? Oh yes, I'm f-fine. I-I was just -um- taking K-Kassie around the cul-de-sac to -um- introduce her to everyone. Though, I guess you two have already m-met, haven't you?" He stammered his way through an awkward introduction and looked shyly at his feet.

Seeing how awkward he was, I volunteered myself to pick up where he left off. "Edd was taking me around the cul-de-sac to get used to living here. He's been taking me around to meet people, but he didn't realize I had already met you."

"Pr-precisely." Edd murmured.

I took another look at her hair and clothes, "Did we wake you?"

"Huh? Oh no, Kevin and I were just watching a monster truck rally on t.v. and I didn't feel like changing." She shrugged her shoulders and giggled. "You guys should come inside, though, this show is amazing, c'mon!" She ran off back into her house, leaving Edd and me to awkwardly follow her in.

We came into the living room where Kevin laid sprawled out across the couch and Nazz sat on the floor with her head near Kevin's stomach. Kevin perked his head up when he heard someone walk into the room but groaned when he saw it was us.

"Not you dorks. I'm supposed to have an actually relaxing day!" He laid back down and covered his eyes with his arm.

"Come on, Kevin," Nazz said, "you'll survive the day if they're here, you don't have to be a jerk. It's just Edd, be glad it's not all three of them." Nazz playfully hit his arm so he would look at her. He did and held her gaze for a moment before groaning and giving into her.

"You dorks better not break anything," he muttered and turned his attention back to the t.v.

Edd and I took a seat on either side of Nazz and tuned into the show. It was a monster truck show called "Hell's Monsters" and the only reason I know this is because I had seen Kevin watching this show in the living room a couple nights ago. It was a boring show in my opinion, but I could tell why the two liked it: destruction. Which is confusing to me. Why would you like a show about someone else destroying something based on the sole reason of destruction, yet be so hypocritical to say you hate destruction when it's caused by someone you know on something you have. It boggles my poor little mind.

Edd seemed a bit uneasy about the show. Whenever the monster trucks crushed something or made a loud noise or even prepared for whatever mayhem they were about to cause, he would pull his beanie down over his eyes till it was over. The amount of innocence this teenager managed to retain astonished me. There are plenty of other things a preteen could be doing right now that would give any adult a heart attack, but this boy still gets scared at something as simple as one truck destroying another. To be honest, it was kind of...cute.

* * *

Time seems to fly when you're having fun. It had been over two hours and Edd and I were just leaving Nazz's house. What started as an awkward little meet-and-greet had turned into an afternoon of fun and games. After Kevin and Nazz's show ended, we didn't really have anything else to do, so Nazz decided to start a game of truth or dare. We mostly stayed within the range of truth, since we were still kind of awkward around each other, but Nazz came up with some good dares that will haunt Kevin for life. Such as when she made him stand on the roof in nothing but his Batman boxers and scream "I Believe I Can Fly" by R Kelly then made him jump into her pool. Then there was Edd's dare (given to him by Kevin, the little psycho) where he had to un-alphabetize Nazz's CDs. It absolutely killed him, but Nazz let him re-alphabetize them when he was done and she made sure to slap Kevin upside the head for screwing with Edd's OCD. We got bored with the game after a while and just let Nickelodeon run in the background while Nazz and I tried to make cookies and the boys ate the rest of my string cheese. Kevin would occasionally joke about Nazz's inability to cook, which earned him a random cooking utensil to the face every time he did. Soon, though, Nazz's mom came home from work and Nazz had to leave for her aunt's house.

Edd and I walked down the street away from Nazz's house, waving to her as her mom's car passed us. Kevin stayed behind us with his earbuds in and rock music blasting through the speakers. I guess those two hours having fun at Nazz's still wasn't enough to change his view of us. He did give us a slight wave, though, as Edd and I walked to Edd's house and he walked to ours. It was only 4:00 or so and Edd and I didn't really know what else to do so we decided to hang out at his house.

He took his key out from his pocket, unlocked his front door, and went inside. Edd's house was fairly large compared to Nazz's and mine, but I guess that was from the amount of empty space. There weren't many electronics or furniture cluttering up the house. The entire layout was simple and neat...aside from the mass amount of sticky notes on literally everything.

"You sure do like sticky notes don't you?" I asked, looking around.

"I prefer not to talk about it," he said solemnly. He seemed saddened by the thought of the little yellow papers.

He led me into the kitchen and pulled out a chair for me at the kitchen table. "Don't leave a mark during your stay. I'm forbidden to have company in the house while mother and father are gone. They would be furious to find out if I had even Ed or Eddy inside, let alone a girl." He walked over to the fridge and opened it. While his back was turned I read one of the notes on the table. _"Eddward, we will be back Monday. Please remember to keep the house neat, keep up on your chores, no guests, and eat accordingly. -Love, Mother 3"_ They wouldn't be back until Monday? Isn't six days a little too long to leave your kid alone, even if they can take care of themselves?

A hand reached out and snapped me back to reality. Edd grabbed the sticky note and took it from my sight, putting it with a collection of others on the fridge. He set a juice box in front of me and only said: "I'd appreciate it if you didn't read my personal notes". I quietly apologized and poked the straw through my juice box. He sat across from me with a similar juice box and watched me in silence. It was a very awkward and uncomfortable silence. We didn't really know what to talk about. We had exhausted most other subjects and we still weren't that good of friends to not be super awkwardly quiet and have it be fine. It was nerve-racking.

Edd decided he would break the silence with asking a question I really should have been expecting: How are you adjusting so far? To be honest, I didn't really know how I was adjusting. I missed home so much but this place was growing on me more and more everyday. It was a nice place and the people were very interesting, more interesting than even the people in Tuskbury. It had its problems but the problems made it unique and beautiful.

I decided to be honest when I answered him. "I really miss my home, but I'm getting kind of used to this place. It's fun here and I have some friends. I guess I'm starting to like it."

"That's good." He took a sip of his juice box and we sat in silence for another moment. "So, Eddy wants Ed and me to help him start working on another project tomorrow. I think it would be nice if you came over and offered assistance. Maybe we can get you and Eddy to stop with the antics and get you two on the right foot. We could really use the help and I'd also like another friend there with me. What do you say?" He smiled and shrugged a bit as if he wasn't sure if it was a good idea or not. I'd say not since he wanted to focus on Eddy and I becoming friends and I absolutely hate the boy.

I agreed, though, "Sure. It sounds like fun. I'll help with whatever I can." He seemed very excited at my answer and gave me a big smile. I guess it would be fine hanging out with the boys. Even if Eddy was a pain it wouldn't just be him that I was hanging out with. I would still be hanging out with Ed and Edd and I liked them; they were fun.

When Edd and I finished our juice boxes and had a conversation about Disney movies, we both got kind of bored and decided to watch one in his living room. I sat on the couch and watched Edd kneel in front of the t.v as he tried to find a movie for us to watch. I looked around the living room while he was busy and noticed something that immediately stuck out: there were no pictures on the wall. No baby pictures of Edd, no pictures of Edd and his parents, no pictures of Edd getting an award or something, the walls were just...bare. Even Ms. Kingsley still had pictures of her husband on the walls. It made me kind of sad; this house had no physical memories. It was just neat and...emotionless.

Edd sat down next to me on the couch after he put the movie in and pressed play on the remote. While the FBI warnings took up the screen I decided to ask him about the lack of pictures. "Edd, why aren't there any pictures on the wall? Don't families normally have cheesy family photos around the house?" His face kind of fell when I asked, but he quickly recovered.

"My family's just not really into hanging them up around the house I guess," he chuckled uncomfortably, "We have tons of family photos, my parents just don't like putting them up because they take up too much space." That sounded like it'd make a lot of sense until I remembered there were pictures of pears along the steps...seriously _pears_. I was going to ask about it, but Edd seemed very uncomfortable around the subject. I decided not to pry and let his secrets be his own. I leaned down into the corner of the couch and focused in and out of Wall-e, always finding my attention back on Edd.

* * *

It was just about 8:50 by the time I got home. Edd and I had ended up falling asleep during the movie and when we woke up it was time for me to go. "See ya, Beanie." I waved to him as he started walking home after walking me home. I stepped inside the house to see Kevin lying down on the couch playing GTA. He didn't acknowledge me when I walked in. I left him to blow things up and ran upstairs, throwing my glasses and hat on my desk and putting my jacket over the chair. I sat down and took out a piece of paper and a pencil and started drawing. I didn't know why but I just felt the urge to draw, and I ended up doodling out a picture of everything that had happened today. There was a little chibi Nazz hitting chibi Kevin in the face with a cat spatula, Kevin's favorite monster truck, Wall-e and Eve, Edd and I sleeping on (mostly off) the couch, that freaky piece of plywood and his owner, and a burnt plate of pancakes sitting in the bottom corner of the paper. It was a cute drawing and was one that deserved to be well colored and hung up on the wall. When I finished it, I hung it up directly across from my bed. It looked a little lonely, so I decided to put up a picture I drew of Edd and me a couple days before. It was...cute.

After dinner, I came back up to my room and changed into a pair of Fairly Oddparents pajamas. I flopped down on my bed, covered my eyes with my arm, and reflected on today. I went through everything that happened and realized something: I actually had a good time today. I laughed, I talked to people, I smiled, and I even got to hang out with a real friend. It was fun and silly and I felt happy. _Maybe Peach Creek isn't so bad after all. It's starting to get better here. Maybe I can live with it._

Before I could drift off to sleep one more thing entered my mind: Edd. The way he looked when he took the note away and when I asked him about the pictures...he seemed so sad. His mother said she wouldn't be back until Monday and I wished I had asked Ms. Kingsley to let him stay over. It must be scary and lonely to have to sleep in your house all alone. I wish I could help him. There's nothing I could do now, though, but sleep. So that's what I did: fell asleep thinking about my newly made best friend.


	5. Chapter 4

Morning came as fast as it went and before I knew it it was Wednesday. Today was the day I would spend my time trying to get to know Eddy instead of trying to break his nose. I wasn't very thrilled about hanging out with him but at least I would be around Ed and Edd, and they were becoming better friends every day. Edd told me I wouldn't have too hard of a task and that my job would be something I'd actually enjoy. Ed would help by cutting the pieces of wood, I was the one who would paint them, and Edd would nail them together to create the stand. I really didn't see how Edd could trust Ed with a saw but he just told me to trust him. Eddy would, of course, be kicking back in his lawn chair supervising our work which meant just sitting on his lazy butt and doing nothing, the little snot.

I finished pulling my jacket on and dug around my desk trying to find my art supplies. I pulled out four different sized brushes from a drawer and stuck them inside a plastic baggy on the desk. I pulled out a bigger drawer and reached for eight little paint jugs with the basic colors of the rainbow and white and black, then stuck them inside the bag, tying it up and carrying it with me downstairs along with my skateboard.

"Morning, Kassie," Ms. Kingsley greeted as I came downstairs. She was sitting cross-legged on the couch with a bowl of cereal in her lap and had the tv on some stupid soap opera. Today was her day off of work and she'd be here controlling the tv all day. She could be doing more useful things in my opinion, like doing laundry or learning how to actually cook but to each his own, I guess. I ignored her greeting and grabbed a yogurt out of the fridge, this one not being expired because Ms. Kingsley had actually gone to the store to buy us food. I took a spoon and sat down at the door to pull on my shoes. Ms. Kingsley turned to look at me, "Where are you going, why, and for how long?"

"Nosy much? I'll be back later." Rule number one of living in this house: Don't be a brat. You will regret it.

"Don't sass me, young lady. Tell me where you're going and why or I will take away all of your electrons and art crap and ground you for a week."

I groaned, "I'm going over to Eddy's house. He wants me to help him with something. I'll be back when I get tired of him okay?"

She sighed, "Whatever is going on with you needs to stop. I'm not going to let you act like a brat just because you don't want to be here. I understand what happened to you was terrible but that is no reason to crap on me for it. Straighten up or I will ground you." She turned back to the tv and kept watching her show. I think that stupid soap opera's gone to her head.

"Whatever," I muttered. Thank God she didn't hear me or I would have been dead where I stood...sat...whatever. I finished tieing my shoes and stood up, grabbing my food, bag, and skateboard and headed out the door. I made my way to Eddy's backyard on my skateboard, riding along the brick path to his patio. Edd and Ed sat in the grass of Eddy's backyard with their supplies. Ed had a saw in his hand and was repeatedly hitting a stack of wood with the flat edge and laughing. Edd sat close to him, organizing piles of nails and polishing a hammer. They were very...strange boys.

Eddy sat in his lawn chair on the patio, yelling at Ed and waving his rolled up magazine at him. "Ed!" he yelled, "The wood's already cut, stop playin' with it, or I'll hit you so hard your eyebrow becomes a mustache." Ed turned to Eddy and laughed, receiving a glare and a growl in return.

I rolled my eyes and let my skateboard roll towards Eddy so it rested under his chair and out of the sun. "Don't touch it," I said, glaring at him. He stuck his tongue out at me and unrolled his magazine.

I walked through the grass and put my bag next to Edd, sitting down and crossing my legs. "Hello, Kassie," he greeted and set his hammer down on a rag, picking up a nail and polishing that as well.

"Hey. So what exactly are we working on? I get the stand part but, like, what's it for?" I leaned back in the grass and rested on my hands. I had a feeling asking this question would lead to a big explanation full of words my little brain couldn't comprehend.

"Well, it's a project that will surely obtain some profit and fulfill our desires of buying jawbreakers. They're a mere ¢25 down at the candy store. What I've-" Eddy put down his magazine and stared daggers at Edd, " _we've_ come up with-" Eddy smirked and put his magazine back up. _Jerk_. "What we've invented are h-heli-" he cleared his throat, "...helicopter hats. Designed to make walking a...thing of the past." His face became beet red as he figured how absolutely ridiculous the idea sounded. Eddy laughed at Edd's behavior, doubling over in his chair. Edd made a face at him and put his hands on his hips, "Oh what are you laughing at, mister? This is entirely _your_ idea and it's a lousy one at that! How do you expect to pull this one off?"

Eddy stopped laughing and growled like a dog. " _I'm_ not pullin' it off," he said, slamming his magazine down his lap, " _you_ are. And it's not stupid," he grinned mischievously, "it's going to make us rich!" He picked his magazine back up and went back to reading. "Now quit slackin' off and get to work!" I rolled my eyes. _Speak for yourself. Seriously, what does Edd see in him? He's too stupid to realize this idea is utterly pathetic!_

Ed bounded over to us with the stack of wood under his arm. "The wood's all ready guys! Time for Eddy to make some cash so we can have JAWBREAKERS! Yum." He stuck his tongue out and half-closed his eyes, dreaming about jawbreakers as drool slipped off his tongue.

Edd and I looked at each other before Edd spoke up, "Ed...back to reality, please."

The boy snapped out of his trance and looked around, confused by his surroundings. "Huh? Oh right!" He put his signature goofy smile on his face as he carelessly dropped the wood down in front of Edd, knocking his pile of polished nails into the dirt.

"Curse your carelessness, Edward," Edd mumbled as he scrambled for the nails, "Messy, messy, messy."

"Huh? Oh, sorry Double-D. I'll be more careful next time, I promise!" he shuffled over and sat down next to me to watch me paint since he had already finished his job. I suppressed the urge to plug my nose from his terrible odor.

As Edd got to work nailing together the uneven, discolored boards, I grabbed my bag and pulled out the eight paint jugs and four brushes, placing them between me and Ed. I sat and waited for Edd to finish nailing two pieces of wood together. He didn't seem very skilled with a hammer and kept missing the nail. I'm guessing this wasn't how he normally helped.

Eddy grew irritated and growled at him, "Hurry up, will ya Sockhead. We don't have all day."

"Don't test me, Eddy," Edd growled back.

When he finished nailing the short boards together he pushed them over to me and I settled them in front of my crossed legs. I looked over to my paint jugs to find the color I needed...only to find Ed repeatedly sticking a finger in the yellow and red paint jugs and sticking it in his mouth.

"Nothin' like ketchup and mustard to soothe the belly after work, right Kassie?" He closed his eyes as he sucked on his finger.

My mouth fell open and I yelled at him, "Ed, that's paint! I didn't it for you to eat, you're not supposed to do that! It can destroy your stomach, you doofus!"

He dropped his smile and his eyes popped open in an 'oh crap' look. "Not my belly!" He grabbed his gut and tried leaning his face down to it. "Belly is wounded!" he yelled and started running around the yard screaming.

Eddy threw his magazine down and started to chase him. "Ed, you Lummox, get back to work! What am I paying ya for?"

"You're not paying me at all, Eddy!" Ed reminded him, much to Eddy's annoyance. I rolled my eyes and giggled at Ed's antics. Edd was right, he is a lovable oaf.

I took a brush and scooped out the red paint from the yellow jug and smeared it across Eddy's grass, doing the same for the yellow paint in the red jug. It was just my simple way of saying 'Screw you, Eddy'. I took my biggest brush and covered the entirety of the boards (minus a corner) with blue paint. When that dried, I used the corner I didn't paint over and colored it yellow with ¢25 marked in gray. I took some white paint and made some clouds that surrounded a 'helicopter hat' made of gray and red. When that was done, I repeated the process in different variations on the other parts of the stand. When the boards were dry, I helped Edd put the boards together to create their stand.

Edd smiled at me as we finished, admiring my artwork. "It's a shame," he said, "I show Eddy your art and he feels the need to use it for his own monetary gain." I folded my arms and glared at Eddy, who was sitting in his lawn chair drinking lemonade and using Ed as a stand.

"Jerk," I muttered.

"Don't start another battle, Kassie," Edd warned, "You know very well how these situations end."

I kept my eyes on Eddy. "I'll try not to, but if one thing goes wrong during this stunt, I get the first punch."

Edd's face became fearful, "Please don't get violent. You know injury doesn't equal solution."

Eddy finished his lemonade and let out a loud burp, tossing his empty juice box onto Ed's back. "Ok, Lumpy, get up," Eddy demanded, jumping out of his lawn chair and standing at his full height of 5ft.

"Yessir, Eddy!" Ed yelled and stood up next to Eddy, easily towering over him. I giggled at the height comparison, considering Ed was easily 6ft. He put an L to his forehead as some sort of salute. "Ready when you are, Eddy!"

"Yeah, Yeah, get that stupid Urban Loser salute off your forehead." Ed dropped his salute and his smile. "Listen up, Kassie, we're goin' to the junkyard. Sockhead here's gonna tell you what we're findin' and you're gonna help us find it, got it?"

"I've got half a mind to break-" Edd quickly slapped a hand over my mouth. Curse his good heart for always keeping things calm.

"Oh no. You two are not starting this today. You are going to behave as friends and you are to do precisely what the other says, got it?" Edd uncovered my mouth and crossed his arms, looking to Eddy and then to me.

Eddy gave a mischievous grin, "Everything the other says, huh?" He folded his arms and stuck his nose in the air. "Kassie, make me a sandwich. Extra cheese and ham, light on the mustard." he waved his hand at me in a 'shoo' motion.

I scoffed, "Why don't you jump off a bridge, pipsqueak. That is if you can even reach the railing."

Eddy growled, "Why you little-" but was never able to finish before Ed picked him up like a baby and covered his mouth with his arm.

"Carry you to the junkyard like Double D told me to, Eddy." He ran through the open gate to The Lane and in the direction of the junkyard.

"I told you not to push him, Kassie," Edd complained as we walked through Eddy's back gate.

"No, you told me not to get violent," I countered, crossing my arms. "there's a difference. And it's not my fault, he's irritating."

He sighed, "I realize that...please just try to keep him calm."

I looked him in the eyes and saw how badly he wanted me and Eddy to get along. _You're lucky to have this good a friend,_ _Kassie_ _. Stop screwing him over._ "Okay. I'll try. I promise."

* * *

I made it to the top of a pile of scrap plastic and sat down next to Ed, helping dig through the junk to find parts for the hats. We had been in the junkyard for two hours, digging through heaps of scrap metal and plastic to find what we needed. We probably could have been out of the junkyard over an hour ago, but the boys were having fun playing with the random "toys" they found in the piles of junk. Not to say I wasn't a victim of getting side-tracked by new-found "toys". I shoved some broken Tupperware containers and a kitty litter bucket out of the way and pulled out a fan blade, throwing it down to Eddy who caught it and threw it in a little red wagon. They apparently came here a lot, since they had the wagon stashed by the path to The Lane so they could use it for their hauls of scrap.

"Find more stinkin' bowls, will ya?" Eddy yelled up to me and Ed in an irritable tone. "There're enough blades down here, find more bowls!"

"Why don't you get up here and help us?" I yelled back. "It'd be a lot quicker!"

The boy growled and mumbled to himself, walking away towards Edd and climbing up his pile of scrap metal. I smirked at his defeat and kept digging, finding more fan blades and multicolored bowls.

When we were done with that pile, Ed and I moved on to a metal pile and dug around in there. Well, _I_ dug around. Ed decided to build something out of scrap parts instead of finding the things we needed. I looked at what he was trying to make. He was building off one of those old scuba helmets like the evil gift shop guy wore in The Spongebob Movie. Whatever he was creating was very...interesting. "Ed, what are you building?" I asked, tossing a piece of sheet metal to the side.

"It is a mask, Kassie! I saw it in one of my comic books, Space Martians From The Downunder." he smiled and pulled a screwdriver from the inside pocket on his jacket, taking my discarded sheet metal and screwing it onto an open section on the top of his mask.

"Space martians from...Australia? Huh." He ignored me and kept perfecting his mask. It was really cool to be honest, even if it was rusty and discolored. That gave me and idea since he seemed very fascinated with his project. "Hey, if you want I can spray paint it for you, so it's not all discolored. I think Kevin's got some in the garage."

His eyes lit up and he looked to me, "Really?" he asked in a higher tone of voice, "It can be like the real Captain Mordbrick from my comic book!" he pulled the comic book from another one of his pockets and placed it in my lap. _I swear those pockets are just bottomless pits._ "You should read it, Kassie. It's about an alien race that comes to abduct us so they can experiment on us and repopulate their planet. There are space martians and explosions and superpowers and on page 15 THERE'S A CHICKEN!" _He gets way too over-excited about those birds._ "Will you read it, Kassie? For me?" he asked in a high, pleading voice, complete with puppy dog eyes and a quivering lip.

I had to admit, his puppy dog face was adorable, and it was hard to say no to it. I playfully sighed, "Fine, I'll read it, but just for you, Ed." I look over at Edd and Eddy, who were sliding down their scrap pile and making their way over to us. I leaned in towards Ed and whispered, "We have to keep it a secret, though. We don't want the others to get jealous, or they might try and take your comic...and your chicken."

"NOT MY CHICKEN!" I giggled at his reaction, the things he did were adorable. He was like a 5-year-old that was hyped up on too much caffeine and Pixie Stix.

I put my finger to my lips as the boys looked at us, "Shhh, don't let them know. They're onto us." Ed looked at the boys that were now below us, giving an awkward smile and waving down to them.

Eddy called up to us, "We're losin' daylight, let's get this show on the road!" Ed laughed and jumped onto a giant sheet of metal, sledding down the scrap pile and crashing into Eddy. I laughed at the boys as Eddy desperately tried to get Ed off of him.

I stood up and cheered for Ed's clumsiness, grabbing his forgotten mask and putting his rolled up comic book in my back pocket. As Eddy chased Ed out of the junkyard, I tried to carefully walk down the pile of scrap but again, I have a good case of bad luck, so I somehow managed to slice my hand open on an old metal can. In my fleeting moments of pain, I lost my balance and tripped down the rest of the pile. I knew I was going to hit the ground so I closed my eyes and braced myself for impact...but I instead ran into something soft, instead of the expected metal and dirt. I opened my eyes to find myself in Edd's arms. He had a very shocked looked and his cheeks were bright red.

"A-are you okay, K-Kassie?" he stuttered, his blush deepening.

I winced in pain as I moved my hand from his shirt, "Yeah, kinda. I think I'm bleeding, though." I did my best to steady myself as he took hold of my arm. My hand was dripping blood down onto my arm and a small blood stain had collected on Edd's shirt where my hand had been. Edd took a rag out of his pocket and tied it around my hand, taking Ed's mask from under my arm and placing it in the wagon with the collection of scrap.

We walked side by side out of the junkyard with the wagon in tow. "I'll tend to your wound when everything's over. Sarah and Eddy will probably start fighting after she pays and Eddy will no doubt get hurt, so I can kill two birds with one stone." I just nodded and kept my head down. For the most part, I was embarrassed by what happened. Unwillingly, I showed Edd how much of a klutz I was and he had to deal with me being the damsel-in-distress. I hated it when people had to rescue me from danger.

We entered Eddy's backyard to find Eddy still chasing Ed in circles. He stopped when he saw us. "Where the heck were you two?! We're wasting-" Ed ran into him and knocked him to the ground, cutting out his last sentence.

The ginger paid no attention to Eddy and instead looked at the wagon. "Captain Mordbrick!" Ed ran up to us and pulled his creation from the wagon, giving me a hug that pulled me off the ground. "Thanks, Kassie." Eddy stood up and put his thumb to his nose, wiggling his fingers and sticking out his tongue.

I felt my lungs start to burn from the lack of air and Ed's pungent odor. "Ed, down, now." The ginger dropped me and I landed on my butt on the ground. I saw Eddy as he tried holding back a laugh. "Don't start, boy," I growled in a dark tone. I don't know why it was so dark, but it got Eddy to stop, so I guess I won.

The wagon rolled past me as Edd quietly dragged it to the center of the yard and started sorting its contents. He seemed emotionless and robotic, and I wasn't the only one to notice. "What's gotten into him?" Eddy grumbled as we walked over to him.

"Who knows, he's probably just tired of listening to your annoying voice." The short boy growled but said nothing, trying to respect his friend's wishes of not fighting.

"Hey, Sockhead, what's with ya?" Eddy asked as he sat down next to him.

"If you really wish to start this scam today, we should focus our time more on work than play." He pulled Ed's tools from Ed's jacket as the ginger sat down next to Edd. Neatly placing the tools on a clean rag (which he apparently has an abundance of), he got to work on inventing helicopter hats. The two boys and I shared a look, worried about Edd, but shrugged it off and began to help him.

* * *

There were three kids, so far, at the end of Eddy's driveway, lining up to see what the idiot boy had created this time. First in line was Jimmy. The poor little 8-year-old was gullible enough to believe the hats would really work and placed a quarter in Eddy's profit jar. Edd (who changed into a clean shirt by the way) told me this was how most of their scams started, with poor little Jimmy believing Eddy wouldn't screw him over. After Jimmy was suckered in, Sarah was next, to make sure Jimmy wasn't alone in what he was doing. Jonny and Plank usually followed them, not wanting to be left out of what other kids were doing, and the poor boy was always suckered into paying extra thanks to Plank and Eddy's greed. Then other kids followed as a show was put on, wanting to see what all the commotion was about. _Seriously, do these people learn from their mistakes_?

I leaned against the garage door next to Ed, who was reading another one of his comics and giggling to himself. Edd stood next to Eddy behind the stand, forcing a smile and trying to make their product look actually decent. Their advertising couldn't be heard well from where I was, but Jimmy seemed to be buying the hype, based on the dreamy look he had when he was looking at the hat. To be honest, the hats didn't look that bad, thanks to me of course. Who knew if they would actually work, though. It's not that I didn't trust Edd's ability to make a practical invention, it was the fact that Eddy was the one who came up with the idea and the idea was absolutely stupid.

The scam was starting now, as Edd placed the hat on Jimmy's head and pulled a cord on the side, sending the propellers into motion. To be honest, I had no idea how the thing actually worked, Edd was the one in charge of all the technical stuff, the other two and I were just supposed to fit them together.

As Jimmy went higher with his helicopter hat, Sarah and Jonny paid their fee, and so did all the other kids lining up. Jimmy and the others stayed in the air for a solid minute, as Eddy counted out his profit, but things started going downhill as Jimmy's hat sputtered out and lowered him onto the ground.

"No!" I heard Jimmy's high, whiny voice yell as he landed on his feet, "Sarah, my hat stopped working! This is false advertising! I want my money back!" As the scene unfolded, everyone else's hats stopped working too and they all landed on their feet in the road. Ed and I stood up and walked closer to watch what was going on.

Once Sarah's feet hit the ground, I knew the boys were in for it. "Hey, Fishface!" Sarah yelled to Eddy, "What's the big idea?"

Eddy hid his jar of quarters on a shelf on the stand. "What are you talking about?"

"Our hats are broken stupid! Why?"

Edd interjected their conversation with a pre-made excuse, in case the hats weren't long lasting. "That's how they're supposed to be, Sarah. They're not capable of staying up forever, that would take far too much technology than what us teenagers readily have. It's based off-."

"Save your science lecture, Double Dweeb," Kevin said, "I want a refund."

"No refunds, Shovelchin, I told you that," Eddy yelled as he placed his hands on the counter of the stand.

Kevin growled and grabbed Eddy by the shirt, balling up a fist next to his face. "You better give me my money or else-"

"Enough, Kevin!" I yelled, separating the boys and standing between them. "If he already stated there were no refunds and the hat isn't actually malfunctioning, you have no right to take the money back. You paid the price and got what you wanted, deal with it."

"You stay out of this, orphan," he growled, shoving me backward onto the pavement. _Not a smart move, ya jerk._ I raised my foot and kicked him a very wrong place, sending him into a world of pain. He screamed and doubled over, holding onto his crotch. Eddy laughed like a maniac, doubling over and pounding on the counter.

Jimmy came up between all of us. "Stop fighting, all of you! I'm claiming false advertising. You said these would "make walking a thing of the past". If they only work for a minute, we still have to walk, therefore, your invention is false."

"It wasn't supposed to be literal," Eddy muttered.

"Doesn't matter." Jimmy stuck his tongue out at Eddy and put his nose in the air. "It's illegal."

Eddy growled, "And what are you going to do about it, take it to court?"

"I just might," Jimmy said matter-of-factly.

Eddy burst out laughing, "I'd love to see that." Sarah came up and slammed her fist down on Eddy's hand, causing him to let out a very feminine scream.

"Give us our money back, or else!" she yelled, practically foaming at the mouth.

"Or else what?" Eddy said as he rubbed his sore hand.

Edd intervened, knowing violence would soon ensue. "Eddy, don't try her. You remember how these scams end and she's not going to quit. Just return the money, and don't make the situation worse."

"In your dreams, Sockhead."

Sarah yelled, "That's it!" and pulled the stand down, revealing the jar of quarters inside. Eddy made a grab for the money but was too slow as Sarah pulled it from his reach.

"Why you little-" Eddy started, going after Sarah but was sent backward as Kevin shoved his foot in his face. Eddy put a hand to his face as blood trickled down from his nose. Even if it was Eddy getting the beating, I felt hurt and grabbed Kevin by his quiff, slamming him on the ground. I jabbed my knee into his chest and my arm into his throat.

"Stop being a jerk and get a life," I growled in the same dark tone I had used on Eddy earlier. "Go home and play your video games or so help me I will tell mom everything you did and she will be merciless with her punishment. So unless you want everything you have locked down in the basement and your bike thrown in a scrap heap, get up, go home, and don't screw with us again, _orphan_." I had no idea where all that came from, but it felt good using his insult against him.

I stood up and walked away from him, giving Sarah a look and dragging Eddy back to his house before he could retaliate. Ed and Edd, along with the crowd that had gathered, were stunned into silence as we walked into Eddy's house.

* * *

Both Eddy's parents were at work, so he had the freedom to scream out all his frustration. With a wet rag against his nose, he yelled as loud as his damaged self could. "That big headed, shovel-chinned, egotistical little rat monkey broke my freaking nose! I'm going to destroy everything he has! I'll throw that junk bike he rides around on in the car crusher in the junkyard! I'll burn that hat while it's still on his big head! I'll feed him to the Kankers! I'll cut that dang quiff off his stupid head! I'll kill him!"

I wanted to make a remark about Eddy's rant. Like how he yells too much or too loud, but I was too busy focusing on how I wanted to do every one of the things he mentioned just as bad as he did. Kevin's behavior disgusted me. He was ruthless in his actions and for what? To feel superior? He was pathetic, always terrorizing kids for no logical reason.

Edd sighed at what Eddy said as he continued washing the dirt from Eddy's face, "He didn't break your nose Eddy, surprisingly, it's just bleeding. And you know very well you couldn't go through with any of those threats, you're half his size, he'd put _you_ in the car crusher before you could even lay a finger on his bike."

"Humor me, Double D." Edd shook his head, but let Eddy keep going as he walked over to tend to my wound. "Besides, Kassie could probably do it." He laughed, "Kevin's face when you kicked his crotch was priceless. I'd never seen anyone stand up to Kevin besides Nazz. That was amazing."

I winced as Edd untied the bloody rag from around my hand. I gave a small smile at Eddy but wasn't exactly impressed with my earlier actions. "I wouldn't. I couldn't. I'm not stooping down to his level. What happened earlier was spur of the moment anger that I didn't even know I had."

"It's a compliment, Kassie, just take it," Eddy said then continued on with his rant, which I muted.

After removing the rag, Edd cleaned my cut with water and peroxide and then dressed it in gauze. I smiled up at him when he was done, silently thanking him. He smiled back and cleaned up the first aid kit, leaving out a TMNT Band-Aid. He put the first aid kit back in the bathroom and came back for the Band-Aid, taking off it's wrapping and sticking it on an imaginary wound on Ed's head. Ed grinned, happy that he was receiving attention from Edd like Eddy and I had gotten. Edd patted the boys head and sat down next to me just as Eddy was finishing his rant.

"Stupid Sarah," Eddy growled, "I'm sick of her ruining all of our plans."

"Well if you didn't always egg her on," Edd responded. "You know exactly what occurs when you don't comply with her."

"Who's side are you on? She had no right to hurt me and you know that! It was assault."

"I know it was corrupt, Eddy, but who are you going to tell? No adult would listen."

Eddy sat back in his chair, defeated. "This sucks." Edd gave a shrug and an unhappy smile, I nodded, and Ed sat on the floor and played with a toy truck that had been stashed in his coat pocket. We sat in silence for a few moments, the only sounds coming from the heater vents and Ed's sound effects for his truck. In his frustration, Eddy suddenly stood up and threw his wet rag across the room, where it hit the wall and slid to the ground, leaving a trail of blood. More blood seeped from Eddy's nose and down his face, but he just stood there with his fists balled on the table, heavily breathing. Blood seeped out of his mouth, his stress causing whatever had been bleeding in there before to bleed again. Ed stopped his game and stared at Eddy in fear. _Don't scare him, Eddy_.

I stood up and grabbed Eddy's rag, washing the blood out in the kitchen sink. "Eddy, you need something to stop the blood," I whispered as I wrung out the rag and brought it to his face, wiping away the blood that had trailed down to his throat. He accepted the rag once again when I was done. He sat back down, still breathing heavily, and stared at me. A single tear slipped from his eye and trailed through the dried blood on his face.

* * *

 _Bombs away, here goes nothing  
The shouting's over  
Hey X-Kid, bombs away  
Here goes nothing  
The shouting's over and out  
Over and out again_

Green Day blared from Kevin's room as I walked into the house. _Thank God I don't have to deal with you right now._ I looked into the living room to find Ms. Kingsley asleep on the couch. _How can you sleep through that music?_ I left her there and walked into the kitchen to feed myself a lousy dinner before going to bed. I turned the stove on to let water boil as I tried making mac and cheese.

As I ate, I thought about everything that had happened today. It started out good for the most part, but once the other kids entered the picture, the day turned to crap. I couldn't really tell who was at fault, the kids or us. They may have thrown the first punches but we had technically lied to them. We knew the dumb things weren't going to work. I shouldn't have helped them with their scam, I knew it would end badly. I thought about how I stood up to Kevin. I didn't realize I had that kind of strength inside me. I was stronger than him and my voice had turned so dark...it scared me. Then again, Kevin did deserve it since he was the first to strike. He was _always_ the first to strike.

I finished my food and placed it in the sink, walking upstairs to my room while quietly passing Kevin's door. I heard Blink-182 coming from his radio and him trying to sing along to She's Out Of Her Mind. I slipped into my room without disturbing him and decided to lock the door, in case he tried something stupid, and placed a chair under the handle, in case he tried breaking down the door.

I took off my jacket and laid it across the back of my desk chair. I untied my plastic bag and put away the paint and the brushes I had cleaned at Eddy's house. Once done, I sat back in my desk chair, defeated. Today was a _very_ stressful day. I sighed and pulled out a white piece of paper and a pencil, relieving stress through drawing out today's events. In my drawing, Kevin was lying on the ground wearing a helicopter hat as I stomped down on his chest while the neighborhood kids stood watching. The Eds were behind me in front of the stand, Ed playing with a truck with his mask on, Edd in a nurses outfit, and Eddy bleeding from the nose with a single tear running down his face. The sky was dark and cloudy, describing my mood.

I sighed, standing up and hanging the picture on the wall with the ones from yesterday before I changed into my pajamas. I laid down on my bed, curled up in the fetal position, and stared off into the darkness. I never liked the darkness, I was always afraid of what could have been lurking there, ready to grab me and torture me till death. I grabbed my Gir plushie from the top of my bed, cuddling it and squeezing my eyes shut as Kevin's music seeped through the walls that separated mine and Kevin's rooms. I sighed and closed my eyes, falling asleep and into another nightmare.


	6. Nightmare 2

Darkness washed over me as I found myself in another nightmare. The setting was the same: same truck, same toys, same house, same broken dream. Tonight's nightmare would be different than the last, but most likely a repeat of one I had many times before. I was always trapped in the same bubble; the bubble that chose how it was going to ruin another perfect memory, and this time I was being moved to the backyard. The world lightened only the slightest as the lights from the patio illuminated the backyard. The sky was dark, save the lights from the big city in the distance, and millions of stars twinkled overhead.

My bubble sat me down on the grass, behind...my father. He stood in front of me, throwing punches at an imaginary being as my mother set up food on the picnic table. This was one of my happiest memories; when my father had been able to come home for the 4th of July. We had been standing out in the grass for an hour as he was teaching me how to defend myself while my mother made dinner. He wanted to teach me and my mother the art self-defense, in case he wasn't there to protect us. I think it served its purpose well.

My father turned around and spoke to me, his face still nothing but a blur. "Okay, Kassie, your turn," he said and pushed a boy in front of me, "Exactly what I showed you." The boy had a backwards, red hat and a green shirt that fell over his black pants...it was Kevin...I didn't want to hurt him again. I mean, I knew it wasn't really Kevin, it was supposed to be a crudely made sandbag dummy my father made just for this occasion. My bubble just had a very cruel sense of humor. _"You know what you have to do,"_ it whispered.

My bubble made me walk closer to the dummy with my fists raised, repeating the actions I had used when the events had really played out. I struck the dummy in the face, much harder than a 5-year-old could really it. Blood trickled down from Kevin's nose and into his now open palm as he looked at me in fear. I hit him again, striking his eye and kneeing his crotch. The pain was evident on his face, but I wasn't allowed to stop until I had mimicked everything my father had shown me. I punched his gut and his jaw, but he couldn't move and just stood there bleeding. I kneed his crotch once more then rammed my fist down on the side of the skull. Kevin fell to the ground and mouthed "please stop" as blood spilled from his mouth. Luckily, I was able to, as my mother intervened our lesson.

"Toby," my mother said from the patio, "she's 5, don't turn her into a monster. Now pick up the sand and come eat, dinner's ready." My father ruffled my hair and picked Kevin up, slinging him over his shoulder as mass amounts of blood flowed from his mouth. I squeezed my eyes shut then opened them, finally seeing the sandbag dummy spilling sand out of the bottom of the bag. "Toby, stop spilling sand everywhere or I'll make you pick it up grain by grain!" My mother sternly yelled as she came up behind me and picked me up, carrying me to the table.

My bubble forced me to wrap my arms around her neck and kiss her cheek like I had done when this was real, but I wanted to do exactly to her what I had done to my dummy. She sat me down on the seat of the picnic table as she scooped food onto my plate and set it in front of me. I looked at her face to find that it was still blurry, along with my father's, as he returned from his trip to the garage and sat down next to me.

I smiled as my bubble let me keep the memory of my father taking the food I hated and turning it into a monster that attacked my hand whenever I grabbed my fork and tried to eat. He was always doing things like that to make me smile. He wrapped his arm around me as we finished eating and gave me hug, then scooped me up onto his shoulders as we walked back out into the grass to watch the fireworks our many neighbors were shooting off. We laid on a blanket in the grass, me with my head against my father's chest and my mother in the crook of his arm. I waved a sparkler around, making a heart around my parents' heads. I gave myself a sad smile. _I loved you so much._ Once my last sparkler went out and my dad and I had finished throwing POP-ITS at our neighbor's fence, I curled up into a ball with my head against my father's chest, holding onto his hand.

I never wanted this moment to end, but they always do. As soon as my 5-year-old-self started drifting off to sleep, I felt my head fall and hit the ground, the noise echoing around me. When I opened my eyes my parents and house were gone, leaving me in the darkness curled up into a ball. I squeezed my eyes shut and opened them again, hoping the memory would come back, but it didn't. I clenched my hand into a fist and smashed it against the ground, letting the tears fall. I missed them so much and I wanted to go back to how it used to be, back when I was just a little kid spoiled with love with two amazing parents. I curled my arms around myself as I continued to cry. _"If you be good the next two days, I'll give you fun,"_ my bubble whispered, before shattering.

I woke up in my room, my pillow stained with tears. I sighed and wiped the tears away, sitting up in bed and replaying the nightmare in my head. I tried making the tears go away, but new ones just kept forming, so I just let myself cry. I pulled my legs up to my chest and wrapped my arms around them, silently crying to myself in the darkness of my room. _I miss you_.


End file.
